Sikkim Police arrests two from Rajasthan in cybercrime case

DICHEN ONGMU

GANGTOK,: CID Sikkim Police have arrested two persons from Rajasthan in connection to a 2020 cybercrime case registered here for an online gift card scam.
The complaint had been made by the Sikkim Manipal University (SMU) vice chancellor in October last year. It had been stated that a mass mail was sent to the SMU staffs from his personal email account regarding Amazon gift cards.
After diligent investigations, a Sikkim Police CID team led by investigation officer PI Abhishek Dahal tracked down the alleged frauds from Rajasthan namely Subham Punya and Preshit Agarwal.
“We had tracked down the accused persons in December 2020 itself but due to Covid situation we were unable to bring them here. Therefore, on September 18 we arrested them and they are now here under police custody. During our investigation we found out the involvement of two Nigerians in this case who have left the country. Efforts are being made to track them as well”, Dahal told media here on Monday.
The case is registered under sections 419/420 of IPC, 66C & 66D of IT Act.
SP (CID) Tenzing Loden Lepcha informed how I4C scheme helps the officers analyse the accused persons through their phone numbers and bank account numbers used during the forgery where the involvement of accused persons in other crimes also gets revealed which helps solve other cases simultaneously.
Lepcha spoke on the importance of mass awareness regarding cybercrime. Such cases usually involve a large number of cheaters running a scam, he said.
Commenting on common cybercrimes in the State, the SP (CID) mentioned that most common cybercrimes are sprouting through fake SMS where people are being conned into revealing their KYC bank details followed by sextortion and the latest one being crypto currency investments.
To avoid being cheated through online scams, Lepcha urged the people not to provide KYC details as no bank seeks for it through SMS. He further urged the investors to be careful and alert while investing in crypto currency since it is unregulated in the country and it also becomes complicated during the investigation in such cases as it is new to all.
Likewise, to avoid e-commerce fraud, one must only contact the 11-digit toll free number to enquire about the delivery of their packages rather than calling the mobile number given in the website which often turns out to be fake.
Lepcha further informed that citizen financial fraud report and management system is yet to launch cyber helpline in the State. For now, one can contact at 9733166761 for any cybercrime related queries or complaints, he said.