Punjab Police’s State Cybercrime Division has unearthed an Minimum Support Price (MSP) payment fraud with the arrest of four individuals involved in manipulating the Anaaj Kharid Portal to divert crop payments from farmers to their own bank accounts,Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Cybercrime Division V Neeraja said on Thursday.

Those arrested have been identified as Manish, Jasvir Singh, Angrej Singh and Balwinder Singh. Police teams have also recovered digital devices and routers used by them to commit the fraud. Neeraja said that the accused used a innovative modus operandi to divert the payment of crop of the farmers to their accounts fraudulently by replacing the mobile numbers of the farmers with their mobile numbers and thereafter using the same to update bank account information of the farmers. To avoid detection, the accused would restore the original details immediately after the payment was processed, she said, while adding that a state wide operation is being conducted to nab the other accused persons involved in the scam.

 A complaint was received from Food and Civil Supplies Department, Punjab in which it came to light that some farmers have not received the payment of selling their crops during the 2024 paddy season. Further verification revealed that the payment of these farmers has been credited to various bank accounts belonging to different persons. The ADGP said that during preliminary enquiry, IP records and other data was scrutinised and information regarding the bank accounts, which revealed the details regarding the unauthorised access of the Anaaj Kharid Portal and the diversion of the crop payment in different accounts.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that a mobile number and a mobile device was purchased from District SAS Nagar on fake identity, which was used to obtain OTPs for altering the bank accounts of farmers on Anaaj Kharid Portal and the gang was running their operation from remote areas of Sri Muktsar Sahib, she said, while adding that an internet connection was also installed for the purpose of unauthorised access of the Portal and altering the bank records of the farmers.

ADGP V Neeraja said that three teams from Cybercrime Division headed by Insp Jujhar Singh, Insp Deepak Bhatia and SI Ranjit used multiple OSINT techniques to establish the whereabouts of the accused, which led to the arrest of four persons from areas of District Moga and District Sri Muktsar Sahib. Further questioning of the arrested accused is underway to identify the involvement of more persons, she said, while not ruling out the connivance of any officials of Mandi Board or Food Supply Department and commission agents, who might have shared sensible information and technical glitches of the Anaaj Kharid portal with the masterminds of the scam. Raids are being conducted to arrest the remaining accused in the case, she added.