Puri: The police here on Tuesday busted an inter-state cybercrime racket in the Sri Jagannath Temple Bhakt Nibas and arrested two persons in this connection. They were produced before a court in Puri and sent to jail custody.
The police seized five mobile phones and 31 SIM cards from their possession.
The accused have been identified as Chandan Singh (27), a resident of Keonjhar, and a JIO SIM salesperson and middleman Goutam Sahoo (39) of Bhadrak. The two were allegedly duping tourists by offering them hotel room bookings in the pilgrim city by creating a fake website.
The accused were nabbed on the basis of a complaint filed by Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Administrator (Development), AK Jena on November 24, 2022, alleging that unknown miscreants created a fake website in the name of Nilanchal Bhakta Nibas using a mobile number 7735227692. The complaint said that the miscreants cheated many people by taking money for booking hotel rooms.
During the investigation, it was found that a gang was operating to defraud tourists and the principal accused was traced to Gobardhan police limits in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. The probe team ascertained that the SIM card used in the crime was issued by Chandan and later sold to the fraudster through Goutam and another accused from Alwar (Rajasthan). Chandan had reportedly sold more than 100 pre-activated SIM cards to criminals through this channel for committing cyber fraud.
