Rs 2 crore bank fraud racket busted, 1 held

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 27

The Punjab Police Cyber Crime Cell today busted a multi-crore bank fraud racket operating in the state with the arrest of prime accused Amit Sharma alias Nitin.

Disclosing the details, Arpit Shukla, ADGP-cum-Director, Bureau of Investigation, said the cyber crime cell had investigated the case on the complaint of Vijay Kumar, location manager of HDFC Bank, who alleged a fraud of around Rs 2 crore from a HDFC bank account. During the investigation, it was found that the fraudster has transferred the money to five different bank accounts. These accounts were opened on fake identity and later, cash was withdrawn by ATM and self cheques.

Revealing the modus operandi, Shukla said the fraudsters changed the email IDs and mobile numbers registered with the bank account of the victim with identical mobile numbers and email IDs owned by them, hence becoming the virtual controllers of that account.

In this case, Amit impersonated Akash Arun Bhatia (victim) and gained internet access of his bank account. Thereafter, the accused transferred the money to five different accounts opened in the name of Vikram Singh by submitting forged documents.

Three persons were nominated in this case as accused and two out of them — Rajiv Kumar and Deepak Kumar — were arrested on January 28 from Shimlapuri, Ludhiana. However, Amit managed to escape that day.

A special team, headed by Inspector Bhagwant Singh, was formed to nab Amit, a resident of Deol Enclave, Ludhiana. He was wanted in six more cases, registered at various police stations in the states of Punjab and Haryana. The accused was nabbed from Shimlapuri, Ludhiana.