New Delhi: Five people, including a relationship manager of a private bank, have been arrested in connection with a cyber fraud in which Rs 12.8 crore was siphoned off from the corporate account of a non-banking financial company (NBFC) through 317 unauthorised transactions, Delhi Police said Wednesday.
Sanjay Bhatia, additional commissioner of police in Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), said that the case was registered on Aug 21 after the NBFC detected unauthorised debits from its bank account. Police said that they managed to place a lien or hold on around Rs 1.7 crore in the fraudulent accounts. Police said Solanki’s account received Rs 60,000, which was withdrawn from an ATM. Lovely was the holder of a bank account in Kurukshetra, which received Rs 80 lakh. An account of his received Rs 40 lakh, while around Rs 70 lakh was credited to another of his accounts in a different bank. Police said the second account was linked to 43 complaints on National Cybercrime Reporting Portal across India. Harman allegedly received around Rs 1.5 lakh as commission.
The investigation uncovered a syndicate involving Telegram groups allegedly operated by Chinese fraudsters, police said. Police said he opened the account after being allegedly lured by one Satyam who hails from Cheeka in Haryana. Police said Harman was in touch with several Telegram groups linked to Chinese operators and was also in contact with one Devender Singh Chauhan of Udaipur.
They also found out that a part of the money that was siphoned off was converted into USDT, a digital cryptocurrency, and transferred abroad. Those arrested are Abhay Kumar Solanki, Lovely, Naman Kumar, Harman and Vikas Sharma, the Jaipur-based bank employee. Satyam, who is another accused, is absconding. Naman, a resident of Jaipur, allegedly provided multiple bank accounts that were used to receive and transfer the proceeds. Chauhan allegedly converted the money that was siphoned off into USDT and transferred it to fraudsters based abroad. During searches, police seized cheque books, five mobile phones and rubber stamps. The investigation is continuing, with cops trying to identify other members of the syndicate who are based in India and Dubai.