East Champaran, Aug 26 (HS): In a major breakthrough against cybercrime, police in East Champaran have busted an interstate fraud racket with suspected links to Pakistan. Acting on the instructions of SP Swarn Prabhat, the cyber police team carried out a raid at Tadhwanandpur village under Bairiya police station limits in neighboring West Champaran and arrested four accused – Akhilesh Kumar, Rohit Kumar alias Shiv, Manish Kumar, and Anand Kumar.
During interrogation, it was revealed that two of the prime accused, Akhilesh and Rohit, had received “training” in online fraud through WhatsApp video calls from handlers based in Pakistan. Police seized a significant haul from the gang’s hideouts, including two laptops, 12 mobile phones, 26 SIM cards, 62 debit cards, six bank passbooks, Aadhaar and PAN cards, an e-shram card, and records of multiple digital transactions. Investigators further discovered two Pakistani mobile numbers on the accused’s WhatsApp, used for direct interaction with their foreign contacts.
The case unfolded after a woman from Agrawa locality in Motihari lodged a complaint at the cyber police station. She reported that fraudsters, using a fake social media ID impersonating her relative abroad, demanded ₹1.20 lakh in ransom, claiming her relative’s life was in danger. The criminals went further, threatening to kill her if she refused to comply. Terrified, the woman transferred ₹30,000 to their account before approaching police.
A special team led by Cyber DSP Abhinav Parashar swiftly tracked down and arrested the suspects from Bettiah in West Champaran. Initial investigations indicate that the gang had cases registered against them not just in Bihar but also in Punjab, Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Jammu & Kashmir – pointing to their widespread interstate operations.
Police have now launched a detailed probe into the Pakistani connections of the racket, with the seized mobile numbers being scrutinized for further leads.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
