Punjab Police bust cybercrime racket in Ludhiana, 3 arrested

Ludhiana, May 16 (PTI) Punjab Police on Tuesday said they have busted a cybercrime racket with the arrest of three people, including a woman.

While working on a complaint, the cyber cell of Ludhiana police gathered technical details regarding a financial fraud which led to the unearthing of a bigger scam being done in the name of online trading through a customised fraudulent app, Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said.

The fraudsters used to lure the victims on the pretext of providing huge and quick profits through online trading, he said.

"With the intention to cheat, in their minds right from the beginning the accused used to ask for two cheques from each victim before providing them an ID and password for using the app," he said.

After the cash was received from the victim, equivalent dummy figures were shown in the victim's account in the app, whereas, actually no trading was done on any exchange, Sidhu said.

The victim was made to believe that he was earning a good amount by trading through the app. When the customer used to demand his returns the ID and password were changed by the accused, he said.

The fraudsters then used to blackmail the victims to pay more or else their cheques would be used against them. In this manner, the accused duped people of huge sums of money, he said.

Sidhu said that cash amounting to Rs 40.62 lakh has been recovered. In addition, an amount of Rs 30.80 lakh has been frozen in bank accounts.

Besides this, several laptops and desktops, gold and diamond jewellery, some luxury cars, 135 cheques and several incriminating documents have also been recovered, he said.

The arrested people have been identified as the gang’s kingpin Anil Jain, Sunny Kumar, both from Ludhiana and Karamjit Kaur from Ahmedgarh, Sidhu said, adding two accused are still absconding.

A case under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act has been registered against the accused. PTI COR SUN NB NB