Nagaon Police Arrest Three Cyber Criminals; Seize SIM Cards, Mobile Phones Used In Crime

GUWAHATI: The police apprehended three cyber criminals during an operation conducted in Nagaon town of Assam, according to reports on Friday.

Initial reports informed that a team from the Nagaon Town Police, carried out a joint operation along with Itachali Police at Dimoruguri village in Nagaon district.

While conducting the operation, the police team detained three cyber criminals. The arrested trio was identified as Anowar Uddin Ahmed, Iliyas Ahmed and Azarul Islam.

Official sources disclosed that the arrested trio was involved in an ingenious plan by using which they managed to rake in large sums of money.

Providing an explanation regarding their operation, an official said that the three master criminals used fake documents of school students to register mobile SIM cards in their names. These SIM cards were then used to scam the general public by appealing for donations, leading to the gullible people giving up their hard-earned money.

Using this modus operandi, the trio had raked in huge sums of money that amounted to several lakhs, by duping these gullible people.

During the operation against the cyber criminals, police officials were able to unearth and seize as many as 400 SIM cars and 10 mobile phones from their possession.

A fourth culprit, who is suspected to be involved with the three criminals, managed to make good his escape from the spot after he saw the police approaching, officials later came to know. A manhunt is on to nab him, the police informed.

It is significant to note that Assam ranked second in incidence of cyber crimes in the entire country last year. But the more worrisome fact is that most of these crimes have remained unsolved till now.

Figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data show that Assam has not only witnessed a continuous surge in cyber crimes in the last three years, but the latest figures released by NCRB show that the rate of cyber crimes in the State is 13.8 per cent higher than the national rate.

The NCRB data revealed that a total of 2,231 cyber crime complaints were registered in the state in 2019, which went up to 3,530 cases in 2020. In 2021, the number of cyber crimes in the State shot up to 4,846 cases.

To deal with such incidents of cyber crime, the Assam Police has already set up a helpline number (1930). Cyber crime cells and police stations are the latest steps adopted by the Assam govt to tackle the menace.

Police sources informed that cyber criminals are technologically much advanced and that many perpetrators are often traced to foreign countries. As a result, many cases have remained unsolved, the sources said.

It was also added that in case of cyber crimes, prevention is really better than cure and, it is advised that all citizens should be extremely careful and not to open any new link online out of curiosity or enter into online transactions with strangers.

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