15 women among 22 arrested in Patna cybercrime crackdown

Patna (PTI): Twenty-two people, including 15 women, were arrested from Bihar's Patna district for their alleged involvement in a cyber fraud, police said on Wednesday.

The arrests were made during raids at three locations - Lakhan Kutir, Ved Nagar and Saubhagya Sharma Path - in Patna’s Saguna Mor and Rupaspur areas.

“We received information from the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) that illegal call centres were being operated in the Saguna Mor and Rupaspur areas to defraud people via cybercrimes. During raids, we arrested 15 women and seven men from three specific locations,” Cyber Police Station (Patna) DSP Sangeeta told reporters.

Nineteen laptops, one desktop computer, 53 mobile phones, 12 ATM cards, and several documents were recovered during the raids, she said.

“Their primary targets were owners of cyber cafes. They download data and have a team to call the targeted people. They defraud them by promising B2B services and setting up Aadhaar centres," the DSP said.

Sangeeta said that the apprehended women were paid Rs 8,000 to 10,000 per month, and were primarily responsible for making calls to "bring in clients".

“The gang had been operating for approximately 12-18 months,” she added.

The DSP said that efforts are on to nab the remaining members of the gang.