One more person arrested in the PMO fake website case

New Delhi: A day after the arrest of the mastermind of the fake website of Prime Minister’s Office, one more person has been arrested in connection with the case, police said on Monday.

The accused Snehangshu Jana (31), a resident of Howrah in West Bengal, was arrested on Sunday.

“Jana was the technical assistant of the kingpin Sudipta Chatterjee and had created the fake websites which were being projected as government websites. Our team had arrested Chatterjee (43), who was managing the website, named ‘Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Yojna’, from Kolkata on Saturday,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Police had received information about a fake website under the name of ‘Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Yojna’ that was offering loans for different projects and schemes with the aim of cheating the prospective beneficiaries on the pretext of providing them loans for different projects and schemes.

When police browsed the Internet, it found the fake website. On the basis of the URL www.Pmay-gov.In, details of the server were obtained, which was found to be located in the US.

This confirmed that the website was fake and not hosted by the Government of India. A case under the appropriate sections of law was registered and Chatterjee was arrested on Saturday, the official said.

During interrogation, name of the person who provided technical help in creating and hosting the fake website surfaced as Snehangshu Jana who too was arrested.

Jana has got a degree of BSc(IT) and proficiency in multimedia especially website hosting. He came in contact with Chatterjee in 2013 and they created and hosted the website with the domain name bharat-sarkar.In.

“He was employed by Sudipta Chatterjee to provide the technical assistance and to manage the data of the applicants, who had applied for loans for various schemes and projects after getting influenced with their fake promises. Jana had created other websites by the name of govindia.In, CGTMSE-govt.In and CGTMSE-gov.In,” said Yadav.

Jana said, he was paid Rs 50,000 per month for his assitance and currently, he had established his separate business in IT security services.

He also said that in 2012, he was working in Siliguri with some IT based company and was drawing pay of Rs. 18,000 per month. His elder sister-in-law, a divorcee, came in contact with Sudipta Chatterjee through some matrimonial site and they were in touch with each other through telecommunication means.

Chatterjee proposed her to shift the base from Siliguri to Howrah, so that he may help him in providing a better job. He had also employed Jana’s sister and other relatives as telecallers. With the income earned from this, he was able to buy a flat in Howrah and live a lavish lifestyle, police said.

PTI