180 bank accounts under scanner, staff arrested

At least 180 bank accounts, most of them corporate, are under scrutiny following the arrest of Rahul Kumar, a deputy manager at the State Bank of India (SBI), for his alleged involvement in a cyber fraud scheme, police said on Monday.

Kumar, a resident of Sector 77, was arrested on July 3 after it was discovered that a current account he opened for a company in February was fraudulent and had been provided to a cybercrime gang. Police reported that ₹3.32 crore was transacted from this account between May and June, with the funds originating from over 100 victims across India. There are at least 30 police complaints linked to this account across different states.

This same account was used by cybercriminals to deposit ₹9 lakh out of ₹52 lakh cheated from Pankaj Kumar, a techie residing in Sector 46, Gurugram, who fell victim to an investment fraud. Kumar’s FIR, registered at the cybercrime (east) police station on May 15, led to the deputy manager’s arrest.

Siddhant Jain, deputy commissioner of police (south cybercrime), said that the documents provided to Kumar, who was posted at the SBI branch in Sector 17, to open the current account for the firm were forged. “The firm didn’t exist at all. It was a shell firm created solely for opening a current account. The accused conducted a field visit to an address at Kamla Palace in Sohna Chowk and took the victim Aman Kumar’s signature in February to open the account, which was later supplied to cybercriminals via a middleman,” the DCP added.