Gujarat: 3 more held in Rs 7.35 crore Bhavnagar Cooperative Bank fraud

Gandhinagar, Jul 10 (PTI) The Gujarat CID Crime has arrested three more persons in connection with the alleged siphoning of Rs 7.35 crore from The Bhavnagar District Cooperative Bank Ltd, officials said on Friday. The total number of accused arrested in the case has risen to 10, the Criminal Investigation Department said in a release. The accused allegedly exploited a technical flaw to hack the bank's core banking system (CBS) and siphon off over Rs 7,34,91,682. The database of four primary bank accounts was altered by replacing the registered mobile numbers with the accused's own mobile numbers, the release said. "They then artificially increased the balance of each account to Rs 1 to 2 crore. In total, they virtually generated approximately Rs 7.34 crore within these four accounts through the software. This amount was subsequently transferred to 135 different bank accounts and diverted," the release stated. The arrested men were identified as Anil Agrawat, a resident of Surat; Bhumil Patel, a resident of Vasad; and Vikas Chaudhary, a resident of Rajasthan. "Earlier, police suspected that the four primary bank accounts were victim accounts. Later, it was found that the accounts belonged to Anil Agrawat," Superintendent of Police Rajdeepsinh Jhala told reporters. Patel and Chaudhary had accompanied Agrawat to Bhavnagar to open a bank account. However, due to issues with the documents, the account could not be opened. Two days later, all three accused returned with different documents and successfully opened Agrawat's bank account, Jhala said. Patel activated internet banking, set the username and password, and handed them over to Chaudhary, who had links with members of the hacking gang, said the official, adding that an investigation is currently ongoing. Jhala also informed that all three arrested accused took a commission of Rs 50,000 each for the task. "It is suspected that Agrawat opened an account to get credentials and achieve access to the bank server. An investigation is underway by the technical team," he added. PTI KVM PD KRK