Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
Bhubaneswar, Jan 11: In a significant breakthrough against cybercrime, the Bhubaneswar–Cuttack Commissionerate Police have dismantled an interstate cyber fraud syndicate operating from the Odisha capital, arresting 12 individuals in a coordinated operation, Police Commissioner S. Dev Datta Singh said on Sunday.
According to the Commissioner, the arrested accused include seven individuals from Bihar, four from Kerala, and one local resident from Odisha. Acting on specific intelligence inputs, police raided a premises at Tankapani Road under the Badagad police station limits, from where the gang had allegedly been running its operations discreetly for the past few months.
“The Commissionerate Police acted swiftly on credible information and busted a well-organised interstate cyber fraud gang. Most of the accused belong to Nalanda district of Bihar,” Singh said.
Investigators identified Debasish Tripathy, Arjun Raj alias Bitu (22), Bijay Kumar (24), and Pankaj Kumar as the key masterminds behind the racket. Police said the gang is widely known as the notorious “Katri Sarai Gang” of Bihar and was involved in both manual and technology-driven fraud.
As per police findings, Pankaj Kumar played a crucial role in sourcing customer databases from major e-commerce platforms such as NAPTOL and MEESHO through local agents in his village. He also arranged mule bank accounts and collected bank details and UPI handles, which were then shared with victims to facilitate fraudulent money transfers.
During the investigation, police discovered that the accused had procured fake, pre-activated SIM cards from various mobile service providers using forged documents. These SIMs were used to make calls, access the internet, and operate social media accounts to execute scams.
The gang allegedly employed three primary methods to cheat victims: fake gift voucher schemes, Kerala lottery frauds, and bogus loan offers. Debasish Tripathy, a web graphics designer, was responsible for creating scratch cards, gift vouchers, lucky coupons, offer letters, and fake Facebook pages to lure unsuspecting targets. These materials, along with helpline numbers, were dispatched to victims via postal services from Kolkata using intermediaries.
After scratching the coupons, victims were instructed to call the provided numbers, where they were persuaded to pay registration fees ranging between Rs 5,500 and Rs 12,000 to claim purported prizes.
In another scam, the gang floated fraudulent loan advertisements on Facebook in the names of reputed financial institutions such as Mudra Finance, Indiabulls, and Bajaj Finance. They also targeted victims through fake Kerala Lottery promotions. Once victims shared their details on the helpline numbers, members based in Kerala — identified as Ajay Raj, Santhroo V, Ajit M., and Sarath Sasi — communicated with them in Malayalam and extracted money under various false pretexts.
Police said further investigation is underway to trace additional links, identify more victims, and determine the total financial impact of the fraud.