Overview
- The biggest enforcement actions happened on Thursday when Ahmedabad Cyber Crime arrested Purnanand (alias Mukesh) Tiwari from a moving train and Mumbai police arrested six suspects from Jharkhand and Delhi.
- Investigators say the suspects built and sold malicious APK files that posed as bank, utility or government apps and, once installed, gave criminals access to SMS, notifications and contacts so they could intercept OTPs and take money.
- Police seized extensive technical evidence including dozens to hundreds of fake APKs, server panels and login credentials, 11 mobile devices and a database that investigators say contains nearly 1.24 crore SMS records.
- Authorities say the racket ran like a business: APK templates were sold on subscription for about Rs 12,000 a month, hundreds of buyers used Telegram bots and distributors earned commissions of roughly Rs 3,000 per cash withdrawal.
- The probe is active across states with forensic work to identify victims and quantify losses after police linked the network to more than 3,200 NCRP complaints and roughly Rs 43.25 crore in alleged fraud, and officials have urged the public not to install unknown APKs and to report incidents to the 1930 cyber helpline.