Data theft: CEN police arrest three

Mangaluru: In a significant breakthrough, the city's CEN Crime Police have apprehended three individuals hailing from the Purnia district of Bihar. They stand accused of orchestrating a sophisticated cybercrime operation involving the hacking of the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) to siphon funds from the bank accounts of numerous individuals who had registered their property at the Sub-Registrar's office. This cyber scheme has left victims defrauded, and it has triggered the registration of ten cases in the past two months.

The individuals in question have been identified as Deepak Kumar Hembram (33), a resident of Supaul district in Bihar, Vivek Kumar Biswas (24), hailing from Araria district in Bihar, and Madan Kumar (23), also a resident of Araria district.

Their modus operandi involved illicitly accessing documents associated with property registration from the Kaveri-2.0 website. Subsequently, they procured Aadhaar cards and biometric details, including thumbprints, and skillfully scanned these fingerprints using a scanner. The ill-gotten data was then employed to initiate unauthorized money transfers into their own bank accounts.

Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal has shed light on the extent of this operation, revealing that transactions amounting to a staggering Rs 3,60,242 have been halted from ten bank accounts linked to the accused. Furthermore, the authorities have taken swift action by seizing their mobile phones, which are now undergoing thorough technical verification as part of the ongoing investigation.