Telangana Cyber Security Bureau nabs 228 cybercrime accused across India, sees 13 per cent dip in cases

The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau arrested 228 cybercrime accused, including 27 women, over seven months in a nationwide crackdown. Offences ranged from job fraud to child abuse, leading to a 13 per cent drop in Telangana’s cybercrime rate this year

Hyderabad: The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB), during the last seven months apprehended 228 accused persons, including 27 women offenders, involved in various cyber crime offenses across India.

The arrests were made across multiple states, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand. “This year’s crackdown covered a wide range of cyber crimes from fake call centers and job scams to child exploitation and cyber slavery rings. This extensive enforcement effort, including three special operations conducted during this period by TGCSB resulted in a 13 per cent decline in cyber crime cases in Telangana during the first half of this year,” said Shikha Goel, Director, TGCSB.

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One of the major operations, was a fake call centre operating from Patrika Nagar, Hi-Tech City, Hyderabad, that was dismantled, wherein 63 individuals, mostly from Gujarat and the North Eastern states, were arrested for targeting NRIs and US citizens in cyber fraud schemes.

During the same period, the Child Protection Unit (CPU) of TGCSB arrested 15 habitual offenders associated with 57 cyber tip line complaints involving Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) across Telangana.

Besides these special operations, the bureau also arrested various other accused involved in multiple crimes across the country. The 228 arrested accused persons are linked to 1313 all India and 189 Telangana crime links in which 92 crore rupees were defrauded. The arrested hail from every corner of India, including Telangana (93), Nagaland (42), Gujarat (20), Andhra Pradesh (17), West Bengal (6), Uttar Pradesh (6), Manipur (5), Assam (5), Maharashtra (5), Odisha (5), Karnataka (3), Bihar (3), Meghalaya (2), Tamil Nadu (1), Haryana (1), Jharkhand (1), and Madhya Pradesh (1).

The arrested individuals were found to be involved in various types of cyber offences, including 66 related to fake call centers, 77 in investment and job frauds, 15 CSEAM-related, 18 in cyber slavery modules, 13 online trading frauds, and several other offences such as illegal SIM Box operators, digital arrest, identity theft, impersonation, etc, said Shikha Goel.