Ahmedabad: The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) arrested two men — Vikikumar Gupta (34) of Delhi and Shailesh Saini (24) of Bharatpur, Rajasthan — for allegedly running 126 fake websites impersonating hotels, dharamshalas, ashrams and trusts across the country, cheating nearly 21,985 people through bogus room bookings.Police said the accused copied names, photos and designs of genuine establishments, or invented websites for those without an online presence, then promoted them via Google Search and ads. Victims searching for accommodation at pilgrimage and tourist sites were lured in and asked to submit names, numbers and booking dates online.Gupta, a web developer, allegedly received these requests via Gmail and forwarded them to Saini on WhatsApp. Saini then posed as a reception manager, collected advance payments, and never delivered the promised bookings.The fraud spanned 11 states and union territories — Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Gujarat alone had 41 fake sites covering Somnath, Dwarka, Girnar, Palitana, Bhuj, Junagadh, Patan and Gandhinagar, followed by Uttarakhand (27) and Andhra Pradesh (18). Over 70 complaints have been filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.Police recovered a spreadsheet listing all 126 sites from Gupta’s laptop, along with WhatsApp chats and C-Panel access proving his technical control over the network. He allegedly earned through web development, SEO and ads, plus a 35% cut from some bookings.Three phones and a laptop worth about Rs 29,000 were seized from the accused.
