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UP STF files chargesheet, reveals how 7 Chinese nationals ran anti-India activities from Noida

The anti-national network was being operated by a Chinese citizen identified as Xin Di.

TN National Desk

Updated Oct 4, 2022, 05:01 IST

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Photo : PTI

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The entire syndicate was exposed when the SSB arrested two Chinese nationals - Yuhan Hellong and LU Lang - on June 11
All 15 accused organised various criminal activities from Uttar Pradesh's Noida
The alleged online fraud scheme had serious implications for national security

Noida: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has filed a chargesheet into the Chinese ‘snoopgate’ that the Noida Police had learned about in June this year based on information provided by Sashatra Seema Bal (SSB).

In the last two months, the UP STF arrested 15 people, including seven Chinese, one Tibetan, and seven Indians, from Delhi and Gautam Buddha Nagar (UP) in connection with the alleged online fraud scheme, which had serious implications for national security.

All 15 accused organised various criminal activities from Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

According to STF, one Xin Di, a Chinese national who is wanted in Telangana for criminal activities, was in charge of the operation.

In India, he was receiving help from an Indian national, named Ravi, who left a Chinese university where he was pursuing MBBS in order to run Xin Di's operations in India, said the UP Police.

In their chargesheet, police said that Ravi ran an illegal mobile scrap factory in Noida to allegedly extract printed circuit boards and memory chips from devices and send them to China through Hong Kong.

It is alleged the accused operated a call centre to support these operations, where they cheated several hundred Indians in the name of giving loans, investing in businesses etc.

Not only was the money earned from this call centre used to fund the anti-national network, but also a large chunk of profits was sent to China via Hawala and cryptocurrency.

According to the information received, the accused set up a number of shell companies and facilitated transactions worth almost Rs 250 crore.

When the SSB arrested two Chinese nationals - Yuhan Hellong and LU Lang - for failing to produce valid visas on June 11, the entire syndicate was exposed.

The duo told police that they lived in a flat at Jaypee Greens housing society in Noida's Sector 127.

Police raided the flat following the input and found several people, including Chinese nationals and girls, partying there. Xu Fi, the owner of the flat, managed to flee along with several others. However, police nabbed some of the girls, who took them to a guest house in Gharbabra.

Consequently, more members of the organised gang were arrested.

Later, the absconding Xu Fai and Ravi were arrested, who revealed several shocking details to police. From the accused duo, police recovered a call exchanger machine, which was used for making international calls.

The machine had a SIM card tray with 32 slots, four boards, and 32 circuit connections. As per STF, this machine was being used against national security.

According to the chargesheet, 40 employees were paid around Rs 10 lakh per month to work in the mobile scrap factory. The accused sent ICs and memory chips from defective mobile phones to China, from which data were extracted and stored. During the investigation, police found 1,000 memory cards in Ravi's possession.

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