All 46 arrested persons do not belong to the same gang but are rather from various networks with most of them targeting residents from Jharkhand bordering areas of West Bengal. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
West Bengal Police have arrested 46 cybercriminals from different parts of the State, with all of them having links to the Jamtara gang of Jharkhand. Hundreds of cybercrime incidents were reported from the State within a month ringing alarm bells about rising cybercrime issues.
In the last one month, more than 250 cybercrime incidents have been reported from different parts of West Bengal, especially areas bordering the neighbouring State of Jharkhand, including Birbhum, Asansol, Hooghly and Chandannagar, and East Burdwan.
Additional Director General of Police, South Bengal, Supratim Sarkar said their team carried out a detailed analysis of the reported cases and found leads utilising intelligence inputs to crack down on multiple cybercrime networks. For this, they set up the team ‘Operation Cyber Shakti’ led by Deputy Inspector General, Cybercrime, Amit Kumar Rathod to conduct these operations.
Mr. Sarkar said: “90% of 250 complaints have already been resolved [and] 46 arrests have been made in the past 15 days.”
He further said that a majority of crimes were phishing scams, fake job scams, digital arrests, fake investment schemes, fake gas connections, and sextortion. Even though cybercrime reports are quite regular, the 250-odd reports from one geographic region spiked the suspicion of the police to dig further.
“Ten teams were formed and for the last one month, they have been placed at strategic locations to crack down on these cybercriminals. The first success was 15 days ago when we arrested three men from Birbhum,” said Mr. Sarkar. Upon interrogation, it was reported that they were all linked to the Jamtara gang, and their operations were controlled by their counterparts in Jharkhand.
All 46 arrested persons do not belong to the same gang but are rather from various networks with most of them targeting residents from Jharkhand bordering areas of West Bengal.
As part of this police operation, they also recovered 84 SIM cards and cell phones, two laptops, numerous technical gadgets, over 100 fake or “mule” bank accounts, and more than 100 credit and debit cards.
The operations are still under way and multiple other arrests are expected in the coming days.
Officers have also reported that as Jamtara is now a known cybercrime zone, many of the operatives and gangs are trying to shift their locations and spread out across other areas to avoid arrests and face police action.
Published – February 15, 2025 10:20 am IST