The cyber crime police of Visakhapatnam Police Commissionerate has been selected for the first prize in the Award for Best Crime Detection (ABCD) category for detecting a case of spoofing.
The CCS Vizianagaram police and the Railway Kodur of Kadapa district bagged second and third prizes respectively. Director-General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang presented the awards at AP Police Headquarters, Mangalagiri, on Monday.
The Visakhapatnam police arrested four persons, including a B. Tech dropout, who deceived some MLAs and MPs, impersonating themselves as PA to former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and PA to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The gang confessed to have made spoof calls (hacked the mobile number of others and made Whatsapp calls to avoid identification) to former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, former Parliament Members J.C. Diwakar Reddy, Murali Mohan, Ballana Chandra Shekar and many MLAs and extorted money.
Explaining the details of the case, Cyber Crime CI B. Gopinath said the accused Pandiri Vishnu Murthy alias Sagar of Gajuwaka used to make with hacked numbers, and ask his accomplices, M. Jagadish, G. Tarun Kumar and P. Jaya Krishna, to collect the amount.
The modus operandi of the gang was that Vishnu Murthy, a B. Tech dropout of computer science branch, got acquaintance with some hackers by visiting the banned sites.
The accused learnt on how to spoof the mobile numbers of others and create Whatsapp account with foreign numbers. In the process, Murthy, impersonated as PA to Chief Minister and former Chief Minister and extorted huge amounts, said the CI.
Then Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Mahesh Laddha said the cyber crime police checked about 76,000 phone numbers, 8,730 tower IDs and more than 500 IPs, and unmasked the IPs of some selected phone numbers, located nearer to the scene of offence based on the time of occurrence of crime.
“The gang deceived many former Ministers, MLAs and MPs and also made a spoof call as Reliance Group head Mukesh Ambani,” Mr. Laddha said.
Stands second
The Central Crime Station (CCS) police of Vizianagaram district, won second prize in ABCD, for detecting a case in which a lorry owner submitted fake documents to a paper mill and loaded material, worth about ₹13 lakh.
The police tracked the lorry to West Bengal and arrested the lorry driver and cleaner, who sold the material, said CCS DSP J. Papa Rao, who detected the case, along with his team.
Third Prize
The Railway Kodur police of Kadapa district stood third in ABCD by detecting a murder case of a software engineer.
Briefing the case, CI K. Balaiah said the victim Sk. Abdul Khadeer, a techie of Bangalore was murdered on June 5, this year.
During investigation, the police spotted a Maruti Van in the CCTV footages, which travelled to Gummadipudi in Tamil Nadu State. Police traced the vehicle driver and subsequently arrested one Prince, who spilled the beans.
Prince fell in love with the main accused, Shabana. However, her parents fixed her marriage with Abdul Khadeer. Shabana and Prince planned the murder and hired five others to execute their plan, said the CI.
All the accused were arrested, Mr. Balaiah narrated.
