Chandigarh, March 3 Punjab Police's State Cyber Crime Division has arrested the main accused running a fake website impersonating the official website of the state government's Mining Department to generate counterfeit receipts and forms, facilitating the movement of vehicles involved in illegal mining, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Monday.
The accused, Gaurav Kumar of Kharar in Mohali, created the exact replica of the original official website of the department in November 2024, which was operational till January.
DGP Yadav said the fake slips even consisted of a bar and QR scanner code on the lines of official mining website which helped vehicles in passing all security checks to curb illegal mining.
Initial investigation revealed the accused, in connivance with a person from Ferozepur, generated more than 2,000 fake mining receipts, causing an estimated loss of Rs 40 to 50 lakh to the government exchequer, he added.
The DGP said the website backup, along with data containing details of fake receipts, images of vehicles, mining material sources and destinations, and the computer systems used in the offence, has been recovered.
Sharing more details, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP-Cybercrime) V. Neeraja said the investigation began after a complaint was filed by the Chief Engineer of the Mining Department, alleging the official website had been compromised and a fake website was being used to facilitate illegal mining activities.
During the investigation, it was revealed the fake website was registered and hosted on GoDaddy, a US-based domain provider, she said, adding cybercrime officials, in coordination with GoDaddy's legal authorities and various internet service providers, traced the website's creation to accused Gaurav Kumar.
She said that police teams led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (Cybercrime), Simranjit Singh, further obtained the information regarding IP addresses and mobile numbers of the accused and conducted raids at different places leading to the arrest of the accused.
Police teams have also identified the other accused involved in this scam and raids are being conducted to nab him, the ADGP added.
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