12 arrested in Bihar for cheating BJP councillor in Haryana cyber fraud case

Katihar SP Jitendra Kumar on Monday said the raids were carried out following a request from Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar cyber police station

PATNA: A joint team of Haryana and Bihar police conducted raids at Katihar’s Barmasia-Buddhuchak village late on Sunday evening and arrested 12 people in connection with cyber fraud cases being investigated by the police. About 30 mobile phones and 8 laptops were also seized during the police action.

The raids were carried out in a cyber fraud case in which Haryana BJP councillor Preeti Jauhar was the victim (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Katihar superintendent of police (SP) Jitendra Kumar on Monday said the raids were carried out following a request from Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar cyber police station which arrived in the district on Saturday in connection with a cheating case filed by BJP councillor Preeti Jauhar.

Jauhar told the police that he received a message to deposit ₹5 on March 2 in connection with a courier. and that she clicked on the link sent to her to make the payment. By March 5, she said, her account was debited about ₹4.54 lakh in six transactions, said sub-Inspector Narendra Pal Singh of Yamuna Nagar police. She filed the first information report on March 7.

The Yamuna Nagar cyber police trace the location of one of the accused to Saharsa in Bihar and arrested a suspect, Sanjit Kumar. During interrogation, Sanjit Kumar revealed the name of Nitish, who was tracked down to Katihar.

Police said they raided the Katihar house to catch Nitish but found many of his associates also at the same spot. The gang had even hired a cook from West Bengal so that they didn’t have to worry about their meals.

Katihar SP said the 12 people who were caught there are being interrogated and raids are being carried out to nab their accomplices.

The 12 were identified as Nitish Kumar Shah, Ram Kumar, Saint Kumar Chouhan, Ashish Kumar Singh, Chandan Kumar Yadav (all from Saharsa), Birendra Kumar (Banka), Vishwajit Kumar Rai (Saran), Prabhat Kumar Singh (Vaishali), Ankit Kumar Jha (Madhepura), Kashish Dhoubri (Ludhiana in Punjab) and Abhishek Kumre (Pune in Maharashtra).