Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh, March 3-
Amidst the ongoing crackdown against cybercrime as per directions of CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police’s State Cyber Crime Division has arrested the prime accused running a fake website impersonating the official website of the Punjab Government’s Mining Department to generate counterfeit receipts and forms, facilitating the movement of vehicles involved in illegal mining, said DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Monday.
The accused, identified as Gaurav Kumar of Kharar in SAS Nagar, has created the exact replica of the original official website of Mining Department ‘minesgeologypunjab.gov.in', thereby impersonating it as, ‘minesgeologypunjab.in'. The accused had created a fake website in November, 2024, which remained operational till January, 2025.
DGP said that the fake slips even consisted of a Bar/QR Scanner code on the lines of official mining website which helped the vehicles in passing all security checks to curb illegal mining. Initial investigation revealed that the accused, in connivance with a person from Ferozepur, generated over 2000 fake mining receipts causing an estimated loss of around Rs 40-50 Lakhs to the Punjab Government exchequer, he said.