Friday, 09 AUGUST 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Police arrested eight members of an interstate cyber fraud gang in Dehradun that was duping people in the USA and Canada with the help of another gang active in the USA. Acting on a tip-off received by the Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh, a police team conducted a raid on an illegal call centre operating in the IT Park area of Rajpur, Dehradun. The operation, which took place late on Wednesday till the wee hours of Thursday, led to the arrest of eight men involved in the scam. The SSP informed that the gang was found to be running a fraudulent call centre under the name Global Tech Energy Solution, where they impersonated officials from an International Anti-Hacking department. “Targeting citizens from the USA and Canada, the fraudsters deceived victims by claiming that their computer systems were hacked and needed immediate attention. Through pop-up messages sent from a team based in the USA, the gang would gain remote access to the victims’ systems under the pretext of fixing the hack, only to withdraw money from their bank accounts,” he said. The SSP said that the police have registered charges against arrested accused under various sections of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including Section 111, marking the first time this section has been applied in organised crime cases in the district. The arrested accused were identified as Mihir Ashwanibhai Patel (38), Lalit (40), Aamir Sohail (28), Manoj Mirpuri (32), Ankit Singh (30), Kaushik Jana (34), Shivam Dave (24) and Goswami Bharti (30). These accused belong to Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar. Singh stated that the investigation has revealed that the gang had deep connections in these states too and further investigations are underway to reveal more about their gang, he said. He informed that the police seized 81 laptops, 42 mobile phones, 29 desktops, and other electronic equipment used in the fraudulent activities during the raid. The SSP also announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 for the police team that successfully executed the operation.
