The Cyber Cell of Madhya Pradesh Police arrested an individual named Ranjan Chaubey (20) over creating fake EPICs (Election Photo Identity Cards) thus posing a threat to the democratic process and internal process of the nation. As stated, “A complaint dated March 27 of such matter was received from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to the State electoral officers, which was later transferred to the State Cyber Cell and the accused was arrested from his native place within two weeks of the filing of complaint under sections 419, 420, 467 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology (IT) act on the charges of cheating and forgery of valuable security.” As per the information by the police, the accused created a fake website due to which any person could create his/her fake voter ID, Aadhaar card and PAN card by making a payment of worth Rs 20 through a QR code which could be used at the place of the original document. “Probing into the matter, the Cyber Cell also entered the name of an eminent sports personality and by filing some imaginary details, the team was stunned when they encountered that a fake ID had been created with all the details and photographs resembling all features of an original document (refer to the photo).”

 

Additional Director General of Police Yogesh Deshmukh said. Digging into the matter, the police relied on various technical evidences and several people were interrogated on the basis of inputs received through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools and the accused was arrested. Fake passbooks of bank accounts, ATM cards, Paytm QR code and source code were also seized by the police. The police told that the accused, a resident of East Champaran, Bihar learnt the process of website creation and designing from Youtube while surfing on the platform. On the platform, he also learnt to purchase source code via online mediums and the transfer of money into fake bank accounts. Reportedly, the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card was purchased from the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh whereas he also created fake bank accounts in Paytm and State Bank of India (SBI). The credit cards were obtained through Dark web and the domain name and indirect cloud hosting system were obtained via foreign companies.

 

In the investigation, the accused also told the police that he employed the use of falsified emails for any communication.Elaborating on the background of the accused, ADG of Police Yogesh Deshmukh said that he comes from a poor and is a 10th standard pass by education and has reportedly made lakhs of money through this scandal. The website used by the intruder has been blocked by the police and the accused has been presented before the court.