It is commendable that the arrest of two key members of the gang that swindled crores under the guise of the Motor Vehicles Department's mParivahan app was possible through the finest investigation by the Kerala Police. This gang had committed hundreds of frauds in Kerala and other states related to paying fines for violating motor vehicle laws. While all other states focused only on making people aware of the fraud, only the Kerala police went after the accused. Kochi City Police Commissioner Putta Vimaladitya handed over the investigation to the Cyber Police when several complaints were received that fraud was being committed in the name of the Motor Vehicles Department through WhatsApp.

An investigation conducted by following the IP addresses and phone numbers revealed that the accused were in Varanasi. Although the Kerala Police sought the help of the UP police to arrest them, they initially refused. The Kochi City Police Commissioner then contacted top police officials in UP, which paved the way for the arrest of the accused. Accused Manish was arrested from his house in Shivpur, Varanasi, and another accused, Atul, from nearby. They were arrested by a police team led by Cyber Inspector Shameer Khan. They were arrested after overcoming the opposition of the locals. Only one policeman from UP was present to help the Kerala Police.

A detailed search of the accused's residences could not be conducted due to warnings of attacks from the locals. The third accused in the case is a 16-year-old. He has been given a notice to appear at the Kakkanad Cyber Station along with his parents within ten days. If he fails to appear, a report will be filed before the Juvenile Justice Board. 96 complaints have been registered in Kochi city alone. It is estimated that 575 people in Kerala have lost money. Preliminary investigations indicate that the accused have embezzled more than Rs 50 lakh from Kerala alone. It is concluded that the accused got the vehicle information from the dark web. Around 3,000 vehicles, their numbers and the phone numbers of the owners have been found from the accused.

Apart from Kerala, it contains information about vehicles in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and West Bengal. There are also indications that the accused have hacked the website of the Motor Vehicle Department of some states. The message received by vehicle owners through WhatsApp will include the vehicle's registration information and challan number. There will also be a link to pay the fine. When the link is clicked, the vehicle owner will be taken to a fake app that looks similar to the M Parivahan app. Once the application is installed, the vehicle owner's phone will be hacked, and the accused will transfer money from the bank account. Although the Motor Vehicle Department has repeatedly clarified that it does not send messages through WhatsApp to pay fines and that they are sent as SMS instead, those who are unaware of this have fallen prey to the scammers. It is a great achievement of the Kerala Police that those behind this scam have been brought to justice.