A large interstate cybercrime network that allegedly hacked various government welfare websites, including PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, Jan Aadhaar, Raj SSP, and Disaster Management Department’s DMIS portal, to divert funds intended for beneficiaries, has been dismantled by the Rajasthan Police.
Named Operation Shutdown, the crackdown commenced on October 22, resulting in the apprehension of six individuals and the detention of two others, including government employees from Delhi, Jaipur, Punjab, Bharatpur, Dausa, and Jodhpur. Authorities disclosed that approximately 11,000 suspicious bank accounts tied to the suspects, holding over Rs 1 crore, have been frozen.
Superintendent of Police (Jhalawar) Amit Kumar stated, “Jhalawar Police have blocked the debit balances of around 11,000 suspicious bank accounts associated with criminals, which have been confirmed to hold about Rs 1 crore.
PRIME SUSPECT OPERATED IN PM-KISAN OFFICE
The lead suspect, Mohammad Laiq, son of Mohammad Rafiq and residing in Kishanpole Bazaar, Jaipur, was employed as an operator at the State Nodal Office of PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi. Laiq purportedly misused his official identification to generate unauthorized IDs for private individuals, bypassing OTP verifications at night to activate land records and accounts for ineligible beneficiaries.
Police reported that the illicit logins were disabled in the morning to cover tracks.
EXPANSIVE NETWORK ACROSS STATES
The syndicate operated across multiple states. Subhash from Delhi allegedly supplied data for ineligible beneficiaries in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Mohammad Shahid Khan from Bharatpur, a former contract worker at a Land Development Bank, aided in executing fraudulent activations.
Rohit Kumar and Sandeep Sharma, apprehended in Jalandhar, Punjab, were responsible for developing duplicate websites of government portals. Sunant Sharma, a resident of Jaipur, was identified as the principal coordinator of the syndicate.
The detained suspects include Ramesh Chand, employed at the Phalodi Collectorate, who purportedly facilitated mass activations through Laiq, and Bhag Chand, residing in Lotwada, Dausa, who allegedly enrolled the highest number of ineligible beneficiaries in Jhalawar district.
MASSIVE SEIZURES
During the raids, police seized Rs 53 lakh in cash, numerous chequebooks, a note-counting machine, ATM cards, about 70 mobile phones, and 35 laptops. Luxury cars, motorcycles, and tractors allegedly acquired with fraudulent proceeds were also confiscated.
Officials mentioned that the seized digital devices contained login IDs and passwords of government officials, data of millions of beneficiaries, and HTML codes of the PM-Kisan portal.
OPERATION OF THE FRAUDULENT SCHEME
Authorities stated that the syndicate initially gathered data of ineligible or deactivated beneficiaries whose registrations were suspended due to KYC or land record issues. This data was forwarded to Laiq and associates who utilized illegally produced district nodal IDs to reactivate accounts and divert