3 private bank executives in Ggm held for helping cyber criminals cheat thousands

Three executives of a private bank in Gurugram were arrested for helping a gang of cyber criminals cheat thousands of people across the country of crores of rupees, police officers familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The executives — two deputy managers and an assistant manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MG Road branch — allegedly opened more than 2,000 bank accounts at the behest of cyber criminals in the past seven months, police officers said. The cybercriminals would transfer the money stolen from their victims across the country into these bank accounts, and later withdraw the same using debit cards provided to them by the bank executives, police officers said. The executives were paid at least ₹15,000 cash per account by the cyber criminals, they added.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “The three employees are being investigated by the cyber crime police in Manesar based on a complaint filed by an individual for defrauding him. The police are investigating the complaint. Our commitment to security and compliance remains unwavering and we are cooperating with the authorities in the investigation.”

Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime), identified the three arrested executives as Mahesh Kumar, 27, and Vishwakarma Maurya, 28, both deputy managers, and Mohit Rathi, 25, assistant manager. Another suspect, Mohammad Hayat, 22, a member of the cyber fraudsters’ gang which is based in Nuh, has been arrested, said investigators. Hayat’s job was to provide the bank executives with fake SIM cards to open bank accounts, give them their commission in cash, and collect the debit cards, said ACP Dewan.

“From interrogating the three bankers, we have come to know that they opened at least 2,000 suspicious forged accounts in the last seven months. However, we have sought a detailed and official report from the bank about how many accounts the suspects opened till now, and in how many accounts were details or contact numbers altered using the suspects’ login IDs, and other technical details to gauge the enormity of the fraud they had played upon the banking system by colluding with the gang,” ACP Dewan said.

The case came to light after a retired Border Security Force personnel filed a complaint on February 17 that he has been cheated of ₹10,000. The complainant said that he received a call on November 18 last year, from an unknown number in which the caller, impersonating one of his friends, asked him to transfer ₹25,000 through UPI.

The complainant immediately transferred ₹10,000 to the UPI address but later became suspicious. He called his friend on his contact number, but the latter denied contacting him or asking him for money. The complainant realised he had been cheated and submitted a complaint which was registered under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the cybercrime police station.

On investigation the police found the role of four suspects.

Investigators said Rathi was arrested from Bilaspur on February 21, Kumar from Kalwadi the next day, and on Monday, Maurya was arrested in Manesar and Hayat in Mewat, by a team led by cybercrime (Manesar) station house officer inspector Sandip Ahlawat. All four are presently on police remand for detailed interrogation.

Siddhant Jain, deputy commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that it would become clear from their interrogation if more officials of the bank were involved in the crime. “Kumar previously worked with a non-banking financial corporation, Maurya with a small finance bank in Sector 15 Part 1 and Rathi with another private bank in Sector 15. We will also contact their former employers to get details of all the accounts they have opened while working there,” Jain said, adding that this is a first-of-its-kind case where direct involvement of bank executives has surfaced with a gang involved in large-scale cybercrime with victims across the country.

“We have seized their mobile phones. We will soon share the case details with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to determine the exact number of victims and the amount stolen by the gang,” he said, adding that at least 40-50 members of the gang and its leader based in Nuh were at large and efforts were underway to arrest them as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, ACP Dewan said that Hayat was a supervisor in an e-commerce firm’s warehouse in Bilaspur two years ago where he met Kumar. “Hayat left the job and came in contact with the cybercrime gang. Kumar, meanwhile, joined Kotak Mahindra Bank. Seven-eight months ago, Hayat contacted him and they have been colluding since then,” he said.

The three used to visit Bilaspur and Farrukhnagar and target daily wagers and lower income group employees of e-commerce firms for opening accounts.

Hayat used to go from Mewat to Bilaspur to give fake SIM cards and cash commission to Kumar and Rathi, and later collect debit cards from them following the activation of the bank accounts. Hayat also took Kumar to Mewat and introduced him to his gang’s leader, said investigators.

According to the police, a fake SIM card was used to activate three to four accounts and if an original number of an applicant was in the bank’s database, the managers used to replace it with the mobile number supplied by the gang leader via Hayat. Officers said that the suspects used fake SIM cards in their phones to authenticate the link of the mobile number with the accounts and then took it out and packed them in the kits to give them to Hayat. Hayat used to receive a commission of ₹3,000 for every bogus account kit procured from the bankers.