Hyderabad: Three senior bank officials were among 52 persons, who were arrested by Hyderabad Cybercrimes unit during a special operation conducted with seven teams across various States. The significant operation led to the detection of 33 major cases by the cybercrime sleuths.
The nature of the cases that were detected included three each cases of trading, job frauds, and social media, four digital fraud arrest, half a dozen investments frauds, two data theft frauds, one each case related to part time job, APK file fraud, USDT purchase fraud and nine cases related to Tipline (CSAM).
The three bank officials arrested for Rs.2.98 crore in trading frauds were Shubham Kumar Jha, a Deputy Manager at RBL Bank in Bangalore, Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad, an Assistant vice-president of Axis Bank in Bangalore and Kata Srinivasa Rao, a Sales Manager in Kotak Mahindra Bank, according to City Police Commissioner CV Anand here on Wednesday.
Kumar Jha played a key role in enabling the fraudulent transactions by exploiting his access to sensitive financial data and facilitating unauthorized transfers while Imamuddin Dharawad facilitated fraudulent activities by approving illegitimate transactions and bypassing standard banking protocols, which allowed the perpetrators to siphon off large sums of money.
Srinivasa Rao utilized his position to recruit unsuspecting customers into fraudulent schemes and facilitated the opening of accounts that were used for money laundering purposes, enabling large-scale financial fraud, Anand said while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.
He said the arrested individuals were wanted in as many as 576 cases across India, and 74 cases from Telangana and the total fraud amount was to the tune of Rs.88.3 crore.
The police seized 43 mobile phones, 39 ATM cards, 17, passbooks, 54, cheque books, 16 SIM cards, three laptops, 13 shell stamps, nine Aadhar cards and Pan cards, three QR codes, net cash of Rs.47.90 lakh and crypto currency worth Rs. 40 lakh, all worth Rs.87.90 lakh was seized.
Additionally, Rs.2.87 crore has been frozen in the bank accounts of the accused, Anand said. The special operation was carried out in Surat in Gujarat, Karnataka, Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, and Hyderabad.
Anand further stated that the teams coordinated with police units across different States to track and apprehend the accused. The operations were conducted based on detailed intelligence and advanced investigative methods to uncover the networks behind these fraud schemes.
