Cyber criminals dupe IAS officer, wife
police on Friday night arrested two brothers from Jamtara, that has earned dubious distinction of cybercrime hub of the country, for allegedly duping ₹1 lakh from a retired senior IAS officer of Odisha and his wife through phishing.
This is the second case in less than four months wherein an IAS officer was duped by cybercriminals from this largely tribal and backward district.
Police arrested Pradyuman Mandal, 25, and Pradeep Mandal, 20, from Jamtara for first extracting ₹49,200 from Sambalpur’s senior IAS officer’s wife and then from the officer ₹50,000. They allegedly posed as representatives of a bank over phone and sought the couple’s bank account details, police said.
A complaint about cyber fraud was lodged with Sambalpur police station in Odisha in April. The police from the neighbouring state sought help from their Jamtara counterpart in nabbing the fraudsters.
“On the basis requisition from Sambalpur police, we arrested Pradyuman Mandal and Pradeep Mandal. More arrests are on the cards,” said Jamtara superintendent of police (SP) Jaya Roy. She, however, refused to disclose the name of officer who was duped. This is not first incident of cybercrime. In July first week, the police had arrested a man for duping an Odisha-based police inspector’s father of ₹2 lakh. In April, cybercriminals from Jamtara duped ₹2.73 lakh from a Jaipur-based senior IAS officer. JC Mohanty, additional chief secretary, public health engineering and groundwater department, Rajasthan, had lodged a complaint of online fraud with the local police station there, and the fraudsters were traced to Jamtara.
Since January this year, at least 32 cases of cybercrime were lodged and 100 arrested in connection with the cases in Jamtara district. The Karmatand police in Jamtara said the youths involved in such frauds were targeting retired government officials, as they were not techno-savvy. Officer in-charge of Karmatand police station, K D Jha, said his police station kept receiving calls from different states seeking help in arresting the fraudsters.