Mathura Villages Linked To Organised Cyber Fraud Networks

On July 7, police teams and drones carried out coordinated pre-dawn raids across eight villages in Mathura. Hundreds of people fled into fields and lanes. After hours of questioning, 42 adults were arrested.

Police say Mathura has emerged as a major cybercrime hub in recent years, with networks recruiting locals and operating from a cluster of villages now referred to as “Mini Jamtara”. Over the past year, authorities have registered 177 cyber fraud cases and arrested 312 suspects. Digital leads from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and the Samanvay Portal have linked approximately 7,000 mobile phone numbers and 1,400 bank accounts to these villages.

Investigators have mapped 18 villages under the Govardhan, Barsana, Shergarh, Chhata and Kosi police stations as operational bases. Most of these villages lie near the borders of Rajasthan and Haryana. Bharatpur is about 40 km away, Nuh 107 km and Alwar 111 km. The villages are roughly 70 km from Mathura city, three hours from Delhi and an hour from Agra.

A 2023 report by the Future Crime Research Foundation, an IIT Kanpur-incubated startup, ranked Mathura second among India’s top cybercrime hubs with a 12% share, after Rajasthan’s Bharatpur at 18%. Other listed locations included Nuh, Deoghar, Jamtara, Gurugram and Alwar. The study noted common factors such as proximity to urban centres, limited cybersecurity infrastructure, economic challenges and low digital literacy.

Those arrested in the past year ranged in age from 16 to 65. Police said many had not completed high school and came from farming families with small landholdings. Some had earlier been linked to highway robberies or confidence tricks targeting pilgrims in Mathura and had shifted to online fraud. Many already appeared in records on the Samanvay Portal, and their numbers and accounts were linked to multiple complaints and FIRs across states.

According to police, the networks operate through specialised cells. One group handles logistics such as mule bank accounts, SIM cards and forged ATM cards. Another scouts targets and makes calls. A third handles withdrawals. Methods include QR-code payment tricks on platforms like OLX, fake advance deposits, impersonation, cloned hotel-booking websites and phishing messages. Encrypted platforms such as Telegram are used for coordination. Operations often take place in open fields to watch for approaching vehicles.

Earlier actions included 12-hour coordinated raids in December that led to 37 arrests and the seizure of phones, SIM cards, Aadhaar cards and forged documents. A February operation involving 250 personnel resulted in 34 arrests and the recovery of phones, SIM cards, passbooks and other digital evidence.

In the recent raids, police recovered 137 mobile phones, two laptops, 42 debit cards, five bank passbooks, 12 cheque books and 50 SIM cards. Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said raids continue on the basis of complaints and intelligence and have reduced the scale of the networks.

Police noted that the networks adapt by using new technologies, fake identities, prepaid SIMs, mule accounts and encrypted messaging, and that the cross-state nature of the fraud, SIM cards, calls, accounts and ATM withdrawals in different locations, makes tracing complex.