The Rajasthan police on Saturday arrested six youths who were allegedly members of a cybercrime gang led by a farmer’s son from the Banswara district.
The alleged mastermind of the gang was 18-year-old Nayan Patidar, the son of a local farmer. The gang operated a website to lure the tribal people into making online payments for access to premium pornographic content, the Times of India reported.
The police seized a tractor and ₹19.6 lakhs in cash from the accused. Patidar had gifted the tractor to his father allegedly using the money he made from his online scam.
All the accused are aged between 18 and 22 and hail from various villages of the Banswara district of Rajasthan.
As per the modus operandi of the gang, the accused had created a professional looking porn site that promised explicit content to the unsuspecting users. The site was even advertised on search engines, and asked users to pay a nominal online fee for access.
Banswara Superintendent of Police Harsh V Aggarwal told the media that the police had launched a ‘cyber shield’ operation to nab the accused.
Apart from the cash and tractor, as many as 10 mobile phones, 14 SIM cards, a chequebook and 5 ATM cards were seized from the accused.
Nayan was arrested on January 10 after the police received some complaints about the site. When interrogated, he gave the names of the other gang members, who were also promptly arrested, Aggrawal said, according to a report by News 24.
Retired Army officer duped of ₹4 lakh
A 68-year-old retired Colonel was duped of ₹4 lakh in Panchkula by an unknown person claiming to be from the insurance ombudsman office.
As per Colonel Nathu Ram Dahiya of Amravati Enclave, he received a call from the accused, who introduced himself as Yashpal Mathur, on January 8. After gaining his trust by assuring Dahiya that he could resolve his pre-existing complaints of ending two insurance policies, the caller told him that by using real-time gross settlement (RTGS), he would be able to get both of his policies terminated.
The complainant added that the caller also promised to help in transferring the entire amount and the interest accumulated under the policies. For this, Dahiya said, he demanded ₹2 lakh per policy to be transferred to his bank account.
Dahiya said that he was told that he would get the money by evening. The caller switched off his mobile soon after the conversation.
Realising he had been duped, Dahiya approached the police and a case was registered.