by Bhupen Goswami
Guwahati: The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted operations across India, including Assam, and arrested 16 cyber criminals. Terming it as “Operation Chakra”, the CBI, along with the state police force, carried out searches at 115 locations with an intention to dismantle the infrastructure of international cyber crime gangs in India and bring these criminals to justice.
A senior CBI official said in Guwahati today that search operations are still underway at several places. Of the 115 locations searched so far, the CBI is conducting searches in 11 cases at around 87 locations, including 16 states, while the other state/UT police are conducting searches at two locations at around 28 locations, including the Assam Police; Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police at 4 locations; Chandigarh Police at 3 locations; Delhi Police at 5 places; Karnataka Police at 12 locations; Punjab Police is conducting raids at two places.During the searches so far, Rs 1.8 crore (approx), and 1.5 kg of gold (approx) were recovered and 2 call centres in Pune and Ahmedabad were also recovered by the CBI.
Bank accounts with an amount of about Rs 1.89 crore have been frozen in Karnataka. Huge digital evidence including mobiles, laptops has also been recovered. The CBI has identified eight states/UTs including Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Haryana, FBI (USA), Interpol, Canadian Police, Australian Police and other private corporations. The police of the Union Territories are carrying out a massive operation with the participation and coordination of the forces.