With the arrest of seven fraudsters, a joint surveillance team of DCP East and the cyber police on Tuesday busted a gang that had siphoned ₹120 crore from Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU).
Posing as an authorised signatory of AKTU, one of the gang members obtained an offer letter required for transferring funds exceeding ₹100 crore from the public sector branch manager, Anuj Kumar Saxena. They then opened a bank account and procured cheque books to transfer the money to an account belonging to a Gujarat-based company.
Those arrested were identified as Joshi Devendra Prasad Prabhashankar of Gujarat, Patel Uday of Ahmedabad, Rajesh Babu of Unnao, Girish Chandra of Mansarovar Yojna in Lucknow, Shailesh Kumar Raghuvanshi of Mahanagar in Lucknow, Dastgeer Alam of Amethi, and Krishna Kant of Basti. Shailesh Kumar Raghuvanshi, a pharmacist, conducted the transactions. One more member of the gang Anurag Srivastava remains at large.
The police successfully recovered ₹119 crore from the accused by halting the payment process through the banks and seizing seven mobile phones from the accused.
Meanwhile, JP Pandey, vice-chancellor of AKTU, said that the bank had assured him of returning the entire amount and he was expecting to receive the remaining funds shortly.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, JP Pandey, vice-chancellor of AKTU, said that the bank had assured him of returning the entire amount and he was expecting to receive the remaining funds shortly.
{{/usCountry}}Addressing the mediapersons on Tuesday, DCP, East, Prabal Pratap Singh, said, “The perpetrators sent a fraudulent letter to the Jankipuram branch of a public sector bank where AKTU holds an account, requesting a transfer of funds to AKTU’s FD account at the public sector’s Vidhansabha Marg branch via the pool bank account process.
“The fraudsters had created a fake FD account in AKTU’s name. They subsequently transferred the funds to a company’s account and withdrew approximately 1 crore,” stated the DCP.
In his complaint on June 12, bank manager Anuj Saxena reported that while on vacation in Manali on June 3, he received a call from an individual identifying himself as Dr. Shailesh Kumar Raghuvanshi and asked for Saxena’s visiting card, claiming that he needed an offer for fixed deposits. Saxena said that he sent Raghuvanshi to the bank and instructed bank officials to assist him.
“Next day, I got a call from one Jai Singh aka NK Singh who introduced himself as finance officer of AKTU and he asked for FD rates. The subsequent day, they sent an e-mail from the bank to AKTU and proceeded to transfer the money from AKTU’s public sector branch in Jankipuram to the public sector branch at Vidhan Sabha Marg. Subsequently, they transferred the funds to Shradha Education Charitable Trust in Gujarat,” he explained.
He said that bank officials sensed foul play and requested the Gujarat bank, where the trust holds an account, to halt the payment,” he added.
Police said that Anurag had promised the arrested accomplices a 3% commission. “We are still probing the case and trying to ascertain if the gang committed such a fraud in other states too,” said DCP.
Police sources indicated that bank officials implicated in the incident had been suspended, and an independent investigation is underway.