Inter-State Cyber Crime Racket Busted in Puri; 2 Arrested

Puri: An inter-State cyber crime syndicate involved in the Sri Jagannath Temple Bhakt Nibas booking cyber fraud was busted by Puri police on Tuesday. Two persons involved in this cybercrime racket were arrested.

The arrested accused were identified as Chandan Singh (27) of Keonjhar and Goutam Sahoo (39) of Bhadrak. They were allegedly cheating tourists through a fake website created by them for booking hotel rooms in Puri.

A complaint was filed against this website by the Administrator (Development), Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) AK Jena in November 2022. It was alleged that someone created a fake website in the name of Nilanchal Bhakta Nibas using mobile number 7735227692. Several tourists had been duped through this fake website.

Investigation proved that it was an inter-state racket. The prime accused was traced to Gobardhan police limits in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. The SIM card used in this cybercrime was issued by Chandan and later sold to the fraudster through Goutam and another accused from Alwar of Rajasthan, police sources said.

Chandan is alleged to have sold more than 100 pre-activated SIM Cards to criminals enabling them to commit cyber fraud. Goutam was arrested by Dwaraka Cyber PS in Delhi in connection with another cyber fraud case in October 2022. He is out on bail.