Punjab Police has dismantled an interstate cyber fraud operation, leading to the arrest of 38 individuals at a resort during a raid, officials reported on Friday. The operation was carried out by teams from the Kapurthala Cyber Cell and the Phagwara city police station on Thursday night. The arrested individuals, including several women, were transported to Kapurthala in a bus. The suspects hail from various regions, including Punjab, New Delhi, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Haryana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra. According to police sources, the group was deceiving individuals in the United States and Canada by promising software solutions, while hacking into their electronic devices.
One suspect, identified as the mastermind behind the operation, had leased the resort and employed others to run the illegal call center, sources indicated. An FIR filed in the early hours of Friday outlines the arrests under applicable sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which includes charges of cheating and violations of the Information Technology Act. During the raid, police confiscated 40 laptops, 67 mobile phones, and Rs 10 lakh in cash.