Accused, villagers attack AP cops probing cybercrime in Rajasthan

Ongole: The police personnel from Prakasam district, who went to Rajasthan on an investigation, were attacked by villagers and accused persons wanted in the cybercrime.

The district police officers are in talks with the higher officials in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan to bring the accused to the State and let the judicial system take its course of action.

For a couple of months, many friends and relatives of several police officers and VIPs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana received messages for monetary help over social media. Startled by the unrealistic behaviour and language of the imposters, the people who received the messages alerted the original individuals, who had complained to the police and posted disclaimers on the social media to not accept friend requests and not to send money to anyone posing as them.

About a week ago, the Prakasam district SP Siddharth Kaushal received an alert from a person that someone by his name and photo asked him for money. Baffled by the incident, the SP made a complaint to Ongole Taluk police station and ordered to investigate the case immediately.

The Taluk and IT Core team found that the IP address of the computer, through which the account is being accessed is in Nagla Kundan village under Jurhera police station limits in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.

The Nagla Kundan village is one of the villages that are near to the bordering point of three states-- Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. The area is a safe haven for many criminals from the three States and has access points to the other two States to escape easily, if police raid the villages.

The locals are known to be involved in financial crimes by impersonating bank officials, police officers, politicians, and VIPs. They also make money by posing as people selling used cars and jeeps by posting photos of vehicles but vanish after receiving a deposit from the purchaser.

As part of the investigation and arresting the accused, a team of police personnel from Prakasam district under the leadership of SK Shamimulla, SI at Taluka police station, Viswanath Reddy, SI at special branch went to Rajasthan and sought the help of the local police.

The local police informed them that they tried to enter the village but the locals attacked them and warned the Prakasam police also not to go there.

But, trying their luck, Shamimulla and his team along with a few local police personnel ventured into Nagla Kundan, and the villagers started attacking them with stones and left them only after grabbing their mobile phones.

The Prakasam SP Siddharth Kaushal said that they are calling back the Prakasam police for the time being but will try to capture the accused in the coming days.

He said that the villagers attacked the team of Rajasthan police and the accused absconded by taking advantage of the then chaos. The local police have booked a case on the incident and made the accused in the cybercrime case also accused in it. "If the Rajasthan police have been successful in arresting in the meantime, we would bring the cybercrime accused to Ongole," added Siddharth Kaushal.

Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, Dr Kapoor announced that they have arrested seven persons in relation to the online fraud and attack on the police with stones at Nagla Kundan. He said that the police have seized 7 tractors, 2 cars, one Bolero, 3 bikes, one laptop, 7 mobile phones, 43 passbooks, 12 ATM cards, 4 cheque books and Rs 3.29lakh from the accused.