Patna: Police on Thursday busted a cyberfraud racket operating from the Patrakar Nagar police station area in Patna and arrested three people, including a woman, for allegedly cheating people by promising loans under the PM Mudra Loan Scheme and other govt welfare schemes.According to police, the operation was launched after the Cyber Crime and Security Unit (CCSU) received information on the night of July 1 about a group allegedly running an organised cyberfraud network from a rented accommodation in Yogipur. A joint team of the Cyber Police Station and CCSU, Patna, was formed to verify the input and conduct raids.During the raid, police arrested Akshay Kumar of Nawada district, Shivam Kumar of Gaya district and Rimjhim Kumari, a resident of Digha in Patna. A search of the premises led to the seizure of 14 cellphones, a laptop, a tablet, 15 ATM cards, five chequebooks, four passbooks, three notebooks, seven SIM cards and Rs 6.08 lakh in cash.Nitish Chandra Dhariya, DSP-cum-SHO of Cyber Police Station, Patna, said the accused had been operating the racket for nearly a year.“During interrogation, the accused revealed that they created fake Facebook pages and advertisements claiming to provide loans under the Prime Minister Mudra Loan Scheme and other financial assistance programmes. Interested applicants submitted their personal details through online forms, after which the gang contacted them while posing as representatives of a loan office,” he said.Dhariya said Rimjhim primarily spoke to applicants over the phone, informing them that their loan applications had been processed. “Depending on the loan amount sought, victims were asked to pay a processing fee, generally around Rs 2,000 for loans of up to Rs 1 lakh, through QR codes or bank accounts controlled by the accused,” he said.After receiving the money, the gang allegedly sent forged loan approval certificates to victims via WhatsApp, falsely claiming that loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to several lakhs had been sanctioned. No loan was ever disbursed.Investigators said the accused used multiple digital wallets to receive fraudulent payments before converting the money into cash through Customer Service Points (CSPs). The cash was then intended to be deposited into different bank accounts. Police believe the Rs 6.08 lakh recovered during the raid was part of these collections and was awaiting further transfer.A preliminary forensic examination of the seized mobile phones and SIM cards revealed complaints linked to the accused on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). Victims have been identified from several states, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, suggesting the fraud network had an extensive interstate reach.
