Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, June 29: Police have arrested a 27-year-old techie on charges of creating a fake website of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) last year, a crime branch official said here today.
The accused, Sanaul Haq, was arrested from Mumbai four days ago on the basis of a complaint lodged by OJEE authorities at Airfield police station in the city on January 16 last year.
A senior crime branch official said Haq, who holds a BTech degree in computer science, had designed and subsequently hosted the website www.odishajee14.com in January last year to encourage students to file online applications.
Haq hails from Ranchi and had been working at a private company in Mumbai.
"Haq could have been roped in to create the fake site, so that once students submit their details, some private colleges could use them. Using the students' personal details, the colleges might have lured them, who got low score in the entrance examination. Once the students' data, including their addresses, mobile phone numbers and educational qualifications, are ascertained, the private colleges in question could have approached them to take admissions to their institutes," said additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma.
Haq was arrested on the basis of technical evidence and has now been sent to judicial custody after interrogation. "We also suspect the involvement of another person in this case after interrogating Haq. Our probe is still on, and we are trying to nab the other accused," Sharma said. Haq was brought to Odisha on remand after being produced in a local court in Mumbai on June 27.
The matter came to light last year after some aspirants had approached the OJEE authorities with complaints about the fake website. The aspirants alleged that the website also had two mobile numbers for sending text messages to the aspirants inviting online applications.
As the fake website had been created much before the admission through the OJEE took place, it created confusion among students and their guardians.
The OJEE officials suspect that the mischief mongers wanted to take advantage of the high number of vacancies in private technical colleges. It is suspected that around 400 students fell prey to the fake website.
The crime branch took over the case in February. On the question as to why the crime branch took more than one year to arrest the accused, a senior police officer said the cyber crime cases often took time as there were lots of complexities and criminals depended on proxy servers.
Besides, establishing the role of the accused through technical evidences also takes time.
Moreover, the accused had also left for Mumbai after creating the site, and for a long time, there had been no operation on the portal - which also led to the delay, sources said.
On the other hand, OJEE officials advised the aspirants to go by its official website www.odishajee.com and www.odishajee.nic.in" www.odishajee.nic.in.
"The fake website was not accessible after the students had brought the mater to our notice, and subsequently, a case was registered at a police station in Bhubaneswar," said OJEE secretary Priyabrata Sahoo.
He asked students and their guardians to be extra cautious, so that they did not fall prey to such fake websites.
