2 cyberfrauds held for duping PM-Kisan beneficiaries in Bhagalpur

Bhagalpur: Bhagalpur police’s cyber cell on Tuesday night arrested two members of a cyberfraud gang that allegedly siphoned off money from PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme beneficiaries by posing as bank officials and seeking OTPs for fake e-KYC updates. The arrests were made during coordinated raids following a complaint by a villager in Kahalgaon. A technical probe later revealed a large-scale scam likely affecting more than 8,000 beneficiaries.

The arrested accused have been identified as Rajkumar Das, son of Chhotelal Sah, a resident of Dautbat locality under Habibpur police station, and Dipak Sharma, son of Bijay Sharma, a resident of Radha Nagar under Sajour police station.


The gang allegedly tricked gullible PM-Kisan beneficiaries into sharing personal details, including OTPs, on the pretext of updating their e-KYC, and then transferred the money into accounts controlled by the fraudsters.

The cyber police team launched a scientific and technical investigation after receiving a complaint from Chandan Kumar Sah, a resident of Badluganj village under Ishipur Barahat police station in Kahalgaon subdivision. Following verification of the inputs, the team arrested the accused.

According to sources, the magnitude of the fraud appears massive, with the number of victims likely to exceed 8,000. An in-depth investigation is underway, and officials suspect the involvement of a larger organised network.

DSP (cyber cell) Kanishk Srivastava said, “The cyber cell team seized a laptop, two cellphones, six ATM cards, four bank passbooks, cheque books, and other incriminating documents. Efforts are on to crack the wider network behind the scam.”