In a major breakthrough, a joint operation by the Cyber Crime Cell and Ghazipur (Indiranagar) police led to the arrest of four members of an inter-state cyber fraud gang in Jharkhand’s Tinpahad area. The accused—Shubham Kumar Mahato (26), Sonu Mahato (26), Rajkumar Rai (21), and Jonu Kumar (23)—are residents of Jharkhand and Bihar. Along with them, three juveniles, including two 14-year-olds and one aged 13, were also detained.
The gang was involved in large-scale mobile phone thefts and used stolen SIM cards to carry out online financial frauds. During the raid, authorities recovered 46 stolen smartphones.
The case came to light after a local resident, Deshraj of Mulayam Nagar, filed a complaint at Ghazipur (Indiranagar) police station. His phone was stolen on April 8 from a marketplace, followed by an unauthorized transfer of Rs2 lakh from his Canara Bank account.
Similar incidents were reported from other crowded areas such as Phool Mandi Chowk, BKT Mandi, Viraj Khand, and Nakhas. The pattern remained consistent: phones were stolen, tracking features like “Find My Device” disabled, and access gained to mobile banking apps for unauthorized transactions.
ACP Crime Abhinav Kumar revealed the gang’s modus operandi: after stealing the devices, they bypassed screen locks and iCloud restrictions, then used linked SIM cards to access bank accounts and transfer funds into accounts opened with forged documents.
To avoid detection, the syndicate employed minors from underprivileged backgrounds to carry out phone snatchings. “Since juveniles often receive lighter punishment, they were used for field-level thefts,” an accused confessed during interrogation.
The investigation is ongoing, with police now working to trace the origin of forged accounts and possibly more members involved in the financial fraud ring.
