Punjab Police Arrests Man for Creating Fake Mining Receipts
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Synopsis
Punjab Police's State Cyber Crime Division has arrested a man for operating a fraudulent website mimicking the official Mining Department's site. This scheme produced counterfeit receipts facilitating illegal mining operations, causing significant financial losses to the government.
Key Takeaways
- Fraudulent website impersonated the Mining Department.
- Over 2,000 fake mining receipts generated.
- The scam caused losses of Rs 40 to 50 lakh.
- Collaboration with a suspect from Ferozepur was involved.
- Police are pursuing additional suspects linked to the case.
Chandigarh, March 3 (NationPress) The State Cyber Crime Division of the Punjab Police has apprehended the primary suspect who operated a fraudulent website mimicking the official site of the state government's Mining Department. This was done to produce counterfeit receipts and forms, enabling the transit of vehicles engaged in illegal mining, stated Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Monday.
The individual, Gaurav Kumar from Kharar in Mohali, crafted an exact duplicate of the official department's website in November 2024, which remained active until January.
DGP Yadav noted that the fraudulent slips even featured a barcode and QR code similar to the legitimate mining website, which assisted vehicles in bypassing security checks aimed at curtailing illegal mining.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the accused, colluding with a person from Ferozepur, issued over 2,000 counterfeit mining receipts, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs 40 to 50 lakh to the government.
The DGP mentioned that the backup of the website, along with data revealing details of the fake receipts, images of vehicles, and sources and destinations of mining materials, was recovered.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP-Cybercrime) V. Neeraja shared that the inquiry commenced following a complaint lodged by the Chief Engineer of the Mining Department, claiming the official website had been compromised and a fake site was facilitating illegal mining.
During the investigation, it was discovered that the counterfeit website was registered and hosted on GoDaddy, a domain provider based in the US. Cybercrime officials, in collaboration with GoDaddy's legal representatives and several internet service providers, traced the creation of the website back to Gaurav Kumar.
She stated that police teams, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (Cybercrime) Simranjit Singh, gathered information regarding the IP addresses and mobile numbers of the accused, conducting raids in various locations that led to his arrest.
Additionally, the police have identified other suspects involved in this scheme and are carrying out further raids to apprehend them, the ADGP concluded.
