With the arrest of three men, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Crime Branch on Sunday busted an OTP-sharing gang, which was providing one-time passwords to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents in Pakistan, criminals and anti-national elements. The STF may seek help from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for further probe.
“Basing on the intelligence inputs about OTP sharing to some criminals and anti-national elements, the STF conducted raids and three accused identified as Soumya Pattanaik of Jajpur district, Pathani Samant Lenka (ITI teacher) and Saroj Kumar Nayak of Jaygarh were arrested,” said the STF in a statement.
At least 19 mobile phones (including Apple), 47 SIM cards, 61 ATM cards, and 23 SIM covers have been seized from the accused.
STF IG Jay Narayan Pankaj said: “Lenka is the mastermind. They bought illegally pre-activated SIM cards from different parts of the state and shared the OTPs with Pakistani agents. After receiving the OTP, the agents used it on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook and online shopping apps. The accused were charging Rs 300-500 per OTP.”
During the investigation, it was found that the Pakistani agents were posting anti-India slogans on social media after receiving the OTP. As the SIMs were from Odisha, the role of the Pakistani agents behind it was not revealed. The numbers were even used by terrorists to put up anti-India posts and honeytraps, the STF IG said.
Cyber expert Prashant Sahu said: “WhatsApp can be operated from anywhere in the world without any SIM. So cybercriminals in foreign countries pretend to call from Odisha. As it appears to be a call from India, people unknowingly receive it and fall prey to cybercriminals. The government should take strict action on the sale of preactivated SIMs."
“It has been revealed that the three accused were in close contact with a woman PIO agent who was arrested in the honeytrap case in Rajasthan last year. The investigation agency is likely to take the accused into custody for further investigations.”