At a time when Ranchi police is struggling to trace unknown cyber criminals, who had sent threat e-mails to chief minister Hemant Soren, another similar case has been reported in the city capital where the AJSU Party president and Silli MLA Sudesh Mahato was threatened by unknown criminals over phone.
Mahato who also served as former deputy chief minister of Jharkhand received calls from two different mobile numbers between 9.30 PM to 10.15 PM on the night of August 14. Caller demanded Rs 15 lakh as extortion and threatened to shoot him if he refuses to pay extortion.
Finally, on August 19; Mahato’s close associate Mahendra Kumar Sharma lodged FIR against unknown persons at Gonda police station under section 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) of IPC. Police took no time to gather details of both the mobile numbers as these mobile phone numbers were allotted to two persons in Jamshedpur identified as Imran and Salman.
During interrogation both claimed innocence and one of them told the police that he had lost his mobile and he had even lodged a missing report at the local police station.
They were released on personal bail bond as the investigation revealed that criminals had used their mobile number to make spoof calls in which bona fide users remain unaware that his or her mobile number is being used by criminals. DSP Sadar Deepak Kumar Pandey is investigating the case. But so far, no breakthrough has been made in this case. This is the second cyber case involving VIPs which Jharkhand police is grappling to investigate.
On July 9 also the chief minister had received the threat e-mail from a mail ID businessman@tuta.io and the same e-mail ID was repeatedly used to send further threat e-mails to the Chief Minister. An FIR was lodged on July 13 and the case was handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Jharkhand Police for investigation. The server of the mail used in the crime was located in Switzerland and Germany. But CID so far has failed to get the IP address and other details of the device.