SNARING THE DIGITAL DACOITS

Rapidly becoming the new hub of online fraud in the country, a concerted crackdown by the state and the police has helped Rajasthan's Deeg district bring down the menace drastically within six months

- Rohit Parihar

IT is a brand new district, carved out of Bharatpur, home district of Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, only last year. But Deeg has already gained notoriety as the cybercrime capital of India, overtaking erstwhile hotspots such as Deoghar and Jamtara in Jharkhand; Nawada and Nalanda in Bihar; Nuh in Haryana; and Alwar next door in Rajasthan. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (14C) found that 19 per cent of all reported cases of fraud in February 2024 originated from this outpost in the Mewat region. The anti-cybercrime units of different states were mapping some 225 locations in the district on a daily basis, which stood in first place for four months in a row for the highest number of cybercrime calls originating in India.

The crimes range from the usual phishing scams using fake mobile numbers/caller IDs and ATM cards, online scams promising financial rewards, sextortion, to such ingenious schemes as fraudulently offering illegal arms and housing on rent and, the most startling of all, money in exchange for a promise to "impregnate young women".

Embarrassed by this surfeit of cybercrime riches, CM Sharma deputed Rahul Prakash, Inspector General of Police, Bharatpur Range, to end this expanding web of crime. And so Operation Anti Virus was launched on February 29, focusing on Deeg. "The CM called me thrice, saying he gets complaints of cyber fraud emanating from Deeg whenever he goes to other states. He asked us to curtail it on priority," says Prakash.