Uttar Pradesh Police has dealt a significant blow to organised cyber crime through Operation Cy-Vajra, a seven-day statewide crackdown that exposed a fraud network linked to financial scams worth ₹1,158.70 crore. Conducted between July 7 and 13 under the direction of Director General of Police Rajeev Krishna, the operation resulted in 773 arrests and targeted not just individual fraudsters but the entire financial and technological infrastructure enabling cyber crime across the state.
A Statewide Drive Built Around Prevention
The operation was launched following a high-level review meeting on July 6, where Krishna directed all commissionerates and district police units to prioritise prompt registration and disposal of cybercrime complaints, aiming to intercept fraudulent transactions before funds could be transferred out of reach. As part of this preventive push, police blocked 2.94 lakh suspicious mobile numbers and 1.81 lakh mobile devices linked to fraudulent activity, while placing ₹530 crore in cyber fraud cases under lien to prevent fraudsters from withdrawing or moving the money further.
Officers also reviewed implementation of the Money Restoration Module, a tool developed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs specifically to speed up the return of frozen funds to victims, reflecting a stated shift toward victim-centric cyber policing rather than enforcement alone.
The Scale of What Was Uncovered
Investigators found that the arrested and detained suspects were linked to 7,989 complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. During the operation, police registered 865 fresh FIRs while establishing accused involvement in 196 previously registered cases from across the country, and separately uncovered 23 new cybercrime cases targeting women and children.
Beyond the 773 arrests, police initiated preventive action against a further 673 suspects under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. Investigators dismantled 3,866 mule bank accounts allegedly used to receive and rapidly move fraud proceeds, alongside cracking down on 17 illegal call centres, five SIM box installations and 11 unauthorised point-of-sale SIM vendors suspected of supplying SIM cards for cybercrime operations, infrastructure that together forms the operational backbone of organised fraud networks.
What the Raids Recovered
Searches across the state led to the seizure of ₹53.35 lakh in cash, 911 mobile phones, 75 laptops and desktops, 1,270 SIM cards, and 648 debit and credit cards, alongside 110 other electronic devices including pen drives, routers and CPUs. Investigators also recovered online gaming clusters valued at nearly ₹37 lakh, which they believe may have been used to launder criminal proceeds or facilitate illegal financial transactions.
The sheer volume of SIM cards, banking instruments and devices recovered suggests the accused were operating multiple fake identities and running several fraud campaigns in parallel. Preliminary findings indicate the seized infrastructure was used for phishing attacks, digital arrest scams, investment fraud, OTP-based financial fraud and impersonation schemes, a range that mirrors patterns seen in similar large-scale crackdowns conducted recently by Delhi Police’s Operation CyHawk and Telangana’s cyber security bureau.
A Broader Shift in Strategy
Prof. Triveni Singh, a well-known cybercrime expert and former IPS officer, said cybercrime has evolved into highly organised criminal enterprises rather than isolated fraud incidents, with mule bank accounts, fake SIM cards, illegal call centres and digital payment channels forming the backbone of such networks. He said dismantling this financial and technological ecosystem is now as important as arresting individual offenders in curbing cybercrime at scale.
The operation reflects a deliberate strategic shift in how Uttar Pradesh Police approaches cybercrime, moving from case-by-case enforcement toward intelligence-driven efforts aimed at identifying organised networks and disrupting their operational infrastructure directly. Investigators are now analysing the seized digital devices, bank accounts and electronic evidence to identify possible links to other cybercrime syndicates operating beyond the state, with further arrests and disclosures expected as the analysis progresses.
