New Delhi: The Delhi Police Cyber Cell has busted a gang that allegedly cheated at least a thousand people of over Rs 17 lakh under the garb of providing e-services through the central government’s Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme.
According to a press note issued by the police Thursday, three persons, including the alleged mastermind, have been arrested even as the probe is still on.
CSCs are physical facilities for delivering the central government’s e-services to rural and remote locations where there is poor internet connectivity or computer access. These centres act as access points for various government-to-citizen e-services in healthcare, finance, education, finance and agriculture.
In February, Akhilesh Yadav, a consultant at CSC E-Governance Services India Limited — which oversees the implementation of CSC scheme — filed a complaint with the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) of the Delhi Police, which handles complex cyber crimes. In his complaint, he flagged a website claiming that it was very similar to the official CSC site, including the web page design, but was not associated with it.
According to the police, the complainant also alleged that unknown persons were misrepresenting the CSC’s services by claiming that they could facilitate registration as Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) and for a fee, even allot CSC IDs for the same without any examination.
“They were also charging money to ‘approve’ CSC IDs, CSC centres and certificates,” DCP, IFSO, Prashant Gautam said in the press note.
Upon investigation, it was found that the fake website was created with the name ‘Indian Guru Sharma’. However, the police could not locate the suspects — Monu Sharma and Chitresh Goyal — at the addresses linked to the mobile numbers in Rajasthan used for the alleged cheating racket.
“Police teams conducted a raid at Moonlight Café, Neem Ka Thana, Rajasthan, and accused Monu Sharma was apprehended along with his associate Kuldeep Singh. Three mobile phones used for cheating were recovered from them. Accused Chitresh Goyal was apprehended from Hotel New VIP, Sindhi Camp, Jaipur, and three mobile phones were recovered from him,” DCP Gautam said.
According to the police, Goyal is the mastermind of the racket that has been operating since August 2022. “He created the website and whenever someone would open the fake website, they would be redirected to a payment link for the creation of a CSC ID. The payment link page is connected to Goyal’s mother’s bank account. She is also a suspect in the case,” the DCP said.
Goyal and his associates also created WhatsApp groups to put out advertisements claiming to provide various services under the CSC for a fee, he added.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)