A stock market analyst, a web developer, and two MBA graduates have been arrested for allegedly deceiving over 1,800 pensioners in Delhi and other parts of the country. The police stated on Wednesday that they had created a website similar to a government portal, through which they asked pensioners to verify their identity and provide a “proof of life” in order to continue receiving their pension. The gang charged a convenience fee from users in exchange for a ‘Jeevan Praman Patra’. However, the treasury and bank had no knowledge of these transactions and consequently, the pension payments were stopped. The four men, namely Khosa from Greater Noida, Kanav Kapoor from Noida, and Binoy Sarkar and Shankar Mondal from Hyderabad, were found in possession of a laptop, 10 mobile phones, SIM cards, and ATM cards. While Khosa previously worked with stock trading firms, Kapoor was skilled in website development. Sarkar and Mondal allowed the accused to use their accounts to receive the money acquired from these pensioners.
According to an official, “Jeevan Pramaan is a digitized service that utilizes biometric technology for one crore pensioners, provided by both the central and state governments. One of the key requirements for pensioners, after their retirement, is to provide a life certificate to authorized agencies such as banks and post offices. Upon verification, their pension is then credited to their respective accounts.” This life certificate can either be presented in person to the pension disbursing agency or obtained from the authority where the pensioner has previously served.
To address the difficulties faced by pensioners, the government has established an official portal at https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in, which allows for the generation of online life certificates. The accused individuals created a website under the name of https://jeevanpraman.online as a means of fraudulently accepting payments from customers for the Jeevan Pramaan services. The majority of the website’s content was copied from the legitimate government portal.
The cyber cell initiated an investigation after receiving a complaint from the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Upon analysis of the transactions and tracking of IP addresses, the four individuals were arrested for charging each applicant Rs 199.