Inside ‘Mini Jamtara’: How Mathura’s villages emerged as a hub of organised cyber fraud

On the morning of July 7, eight Mathura villages woke up to a strange sight – hundreds of people scampering across fields and narrow lanes as policemen and drones chased them.“When the police teams arrived, several people fled,” one senior police officer told The Indian Express. “After long hours of questioning, 42 people – all adults – were arrested.”The coordinated pre-dawn raids were part of a police crackdown on the growing network of cybercrimes in Mathura. Investigators claim that over the last few years, Mathura has emerged as a major cybercrime hub, with a large network recruiting locals and operating from these villages, earning the district the moniker “Mini Jamtara”. So far, the police claim to have registered 177 cyber fraud cases over the past year, and 312 suspects have been