BENGALURU: A computer operator with
Harohalli town
municipal council and his associate have been nabbed for allegedly hacking into an application of the department of rural development and panchayat raj and granting e-khata to 36 sites located in Channahalli, near Devanahalli.
Bharath S, the computer operator, and
Guruprasad HN
are the suspects. Investigation revealed that many others, including a panchayat development officer (
PDO
), are involved in the matter. Efforts are on to arrest them.
The alleged scam took place between 1.50pm on September 17, 2021, and 5pm on September 20. The PDO of Channahalli gram panchayat learnt about the fraud and brought it to the notice of Vasantha Kumar HD, executive officer (EO) of Devanahalli taluk panchayat.
On December 4, police registered a complaint of cybercrime and cheating against unidentified persons based on a complaint from Kumar.
As per procedure, the EO assigns the login for the PDO to approve e-khatas for sites in the Panchatantra application of the RDPR department. But some miscreants hacked the EO’s login credentials and assigned a person — Guruprasad HN — to approve e-khatas. They approved e-khatas for 36 sites belonging to Tirupati Reddy and Ajay Narne. But those approvals did not have the PDO’s digital signature, which is mandatory. Anoop A Shetty, DCP (northeast), formed a special team headed by inspector Santosh Ram to crack the case.
Investigation revealed that the miscreants accessed the login from Harohalli town municipal and Bhairapattana gram panchayat in Ramanagara district. Bhairapattana PDO
Ravikumar JD
and a few other suspects are at large.
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