Jammu, Dec 25 (PTI) Eight persons, who were using pictures of senior police officers to impress on people to purchase goods from an online platform, were arrested from Rajasthan by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, an official said on Saturday.

They were arrested during a raid in Alwar district of Rajasthan following a complaint at the Cyber Police Jammu cell on December 8, a police spokesman said.

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He said several mobilephone handsets and other evidence were seized during the raid and further investigation is going on.

Terming the arrests as a “major breakthrough”, the spokesman said Sanjib Kumar Baishya of Delhi lodged a complaint at the Cyber police station in Jammu, saying that some unknown person impersonating himself as an officer of the CISF working in Guwahati, Assam, had posted a few pictures of household items for sale on an online platform.

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Being interested in buying the items, the complainant, said he contacted the person and consequently was duped, the spokesman said, adding a case under relevant sections of the law has been registered.

During the course of investigation, the spokesman said, it was found that the fraudsters were using pictures of senior officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Police to impress upon buyers to purchase goods from online platforms.

"During investigation transactions involved were also scrutinised, registration details of Quikr advertisement were obtained and accordingly, based on location of the fraudsters, it was ascertained that these fraudsters are operating from different areas of Alwar city of Rajasthan," he said.

Accordingly, the spokesman said, with the help of local police, a special team from Jammu and Kashmir Police Cyber cell succeeded in arresting eight accused including the kingpin.

He identified the arrested accused as Mousam Khan, his brother Arish Khan, Manish Khan, Soket Khan, Irfan Khan, Mustaq Khan and Sahib Khan of Kakrali village and Asif Khan of Garhi Mewat of Rajasthan.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)