2 nabbed by STF in Lucknow for bid to hack bank’s server, steal ₹146 crore
The incident was reported on October 15 last year and a case was lodged on the complaint of assistant general manager of the bank after he suspected cyber fraud
LUCKNOW The STF on Wednesday nabbed two men for their alleged bid to steal ₹146 crore by hacking the server of UP Cooperative Bank Ltd in Lucknow. The duo, Amrendra Kumar Singh of Mau and Sunil Kumar Yadav of Varanasi, was arrested from near a mall in Gomti Nagar, said cops.
The incident was reported on October 15 last year and a case was lodged on the complaint of assistant general manager of the bank, Ajay Kumar Tripathi after he suspected cyber fraud. The accused were carrying a cash reward of ₹25,000 each since their name surfaced during investigation of the case and arrest of eight people, including the prime accused (a former bank manager), on October 31 last year.
The miscreants had employed three hackers from Mumbai for the online bank heist and also sought help of three bank employees for the theft, said officials.
A B Com passout from BHU, the accused Amrendra Kumar Singh told cops he worked as a contractor in zila panchayat and the PWD in Mau between 2000 and 2018 and then took up the job of a property broker. During this stint, he met Sunil Kumar Yadav (the other accused), Ravi Verma, Gyan Dev Pal, Dhruv Kumar and others.
In 2021, Singh met a hacker who had expertise in transferring bank money into dead accounts by taking a bank’s server on remote access control. Thereafter, they met the assistant manager of the cooperative bank, Mahmoodabad in Sitapur, Karmveer Singh and the accused studied the bank’s system before hacking it.
On October 14, the prime accused and former manager of the bank RS Dubey, along with Ravi Verma and Gyandev Pal, went to the bank after 6 pm and installed a key logger and a device.
The next day, five teams of hackers comprising 20 people assembled near the KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium. Dubey and others started the operation at lunch time. The accused transferred ₹146 crore in the accounts of companies owned by one Ganga Sagar and then went to a dhaba for refreshments. But prompt action by the UP Police cyber cell foiled the gang’s plan to withdraw the money as they put a freeze on the bank accounts.
