3 bank officials among 52 held as police bust inter-state cybercrime racket
An inter-state cybercrime racket has been busted and 52 people have been arrested in the case, including three senior bank officials, in a special operation across various states
An inter-state cybercrime racket has been busted and 52 people have been arrested in the case, including three senior bank officials, in a special operation across various states, the Hyderabad Cybercrime police on Wednesday said.
Speaking to reporters, Hyderabad city police commissioner CV Anand said the special operation was conducted by seven teams across Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, and Telangana in the last few months.
“The teams coordinated with police units across different states to track based on detailed intelligence and advanced investigative methods to uncover the networks behind these fraud schemes. This significant operation led to the detection of 33 major cases by the cybercrime police,” Anand said.
The 33 cases include: three of trading frauds, four of digital fraud, six of investment fraud, two data theft frauds, three of social media fraud, three of job frauds, one case each of part-time job fraud and APK file fraud. “The total money involved in these frauds was more than ₹8.83 crore,” the police commissioner said.
He said the accused were wanted in a total of 576 cases across India with 74 cases from Telangana. A cash of ₹47.90 lakh, besides crypto-currency worth ₹40 lakh was seized from them, Anand said, adding that an amount of ₹2.87 crore belonging to the accused was frozen in their bank accounts.
The police commissioner said among the three bank officials, Subham Kumar Jah, a deputy manager of RBL Bank, Bengaluru, played a key role in enabling the fraudulent transactions by exploiting his access to sensitive financial data and facilitating unauthorised transfers.
“Similarly, Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad, working as assistant vice-president of Axis Bank in Bengaluru, facilitated fraudulent activities by approving illegitimate transactions and bypassing standard banking protocols, which allowed the perpetrators to siphon off large sums of money,” Anand said.
Another bank official Kata Srinivasa Rao, a sales manager with Kotak Mahindra Bank, was also found to have recruited unsuspecting customers into fraudulent schemes and facilitated the opening of accounts that were used for money laundering purposes, enabling large-scale financial fraud, he said.
The officer further said that Shubham Kumar Jha and Haroon Rasheed had also facilitated fraudulent transactions worth ₹23 crore which were routed through accounts created and managed by the cybercriminals across India, Nepal and China, in collusion with one R Mohan, a fabrication business owner of Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Cybercrime police also arrested two people from Gujarat Harpal Singh and Saiyad Aiyub Bhai in connection with a digital fraud case. During the investigation it is found that the accused were involved in 17 cases across India and more cases would be identified during further investigation.