New Delhi: Delhi Police has uncovered a sophisticated cyber scam linked to an alleged cross-border network operating via Chinese groups on Telegram and a key handler based in Dubai. Fraudsters siphoned off nearly Rs 12.84 crore from top non-banking financial firm (NBFC), Hero FinCorp Ltd, through 317 unauthorised transactions on 21 August, the police said Wednesday.
Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit arrested five people in raids across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, including a private bank relationship manager who helped open mule accounts, police said.
They have been identified as Abhay Kumar Solanki, Lovely, Naman Kumar, Harman, and Vikas. Police are identifying other accused, and an investigation is underway to arrest those absconding.
The syndicate managed to siphon the funds through multiple layers of banking before converting a large portion into crypto and sending it abroad. Police said they have frozen Rs 1.7 crore so far as raids continue to track down the remaining suspects.
The case
Police registered a case following a complaint by Hero FinCorp, a registered NBFC, through its authorised legal representative.
According to the complaint, the company discovered unauthorised debit transactions from its corporate bank account, following system alerts from HDFC Bank. The transactions were systematically carried out from the corporate bank account “without any form of authorisation, instruction, consent, or prior knowledge of the company management”.
A senior police officer said a total of 317 unauthorised digital transactions amounting to Rs 12,84,09,997 were routed into 34 distinct primary layer bank accounts.
IFSO registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections related to extortion, cheating, cheating by personation, forged documents or electronic records, and using them as genuine on 21 August. It also managed to put on hold an amount of Rs 1.7 crore in the fraudulent accounts to preserve the cheated capital.
A team was formed and they obtained and analysed details of the alleged bank accounts and mobile phone records involved in the scam.
Raids were conducted all over India, leading to the arrest of five people, police said.
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Behind the scam
Police said Rs 60,000 was credited to the account of accused Abhay, a resident of Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, and was later withdrawn via ATM.
Another accused, Lovely, a resident of Haryana’s Kurukshetra, was the account holder of Property Gallery, Central Bank of India, Thanesar, Kurukshetra, where Rs 80 lakh was credited. Lovely allegedly opened the bank account after being lured by Satyam, a resident of Kaithal, who is still absconding. Both Abhay and Lovely acted separately and did not know each other.
Police then identified Naman Kumar, resident of Jaipur, Rajasthan, as the account holder of Infirmity Services at Yes Bank in Jaipur, where Rs 40 lakhs was credited.
He had also given his IndusInd Bank account, in which about Rs 70 lakhs were credited, police said. They also identified that this account was linked to 43 complaints on the National Cyber Reporting Platform (NCRP) across India.
Police said Naman met co-accused Harman, a resident of Bikaner in Rajasthan, through Vikas, who operated his IndusInd Bank account for receiving and transferring the fraud proceeds by installing an APK File on Naman’s mobile phone, police said.
Harman also introduced Naman to Sourav, a resident of Delhi. “Naman went to Delhi and stayed in Hotel Nirvana Residency, Krishana Nagar, Delhi, where his Yes Bank account was operated using the above modus operandi,” the police officer said.
“Harman was in contact with various Chinese groups on Telegram and was also in direct contact with Devender Singh Chauhan, Udaipur, Rajasthan, on Telegram, who used to convert the cheated money into USDT (cryptocurrency) and transfer it to fraudsters based abroad,” a senior police officer said.
The officer said these Chinese groups had multiple offers for sale and purchase of bank accounts. “Chinese people are behind the sale and purchase. They manage the accounts. One can buy accounts in bulk for multiple offers.”
The police investigation revealed that Harman obtained and operated Naman’s bank account on a commission basis and received about Rs 1.5 lakhs as commission from Devender Singh.
Police also identified Vikas, a relationship manager at a bank in Jaipur, who allegedly helped account holder Naman to open accounts in Yes Bank and IndusInd and introduced him to the account facilitator Harman. They have recovered cheque books, mobile phones and rubber stamps bearing the name of Property Gallery.
“The offence has been found to be grave, well-organised, and trans-state in nature, involving sophisticated cyber fraud, and systematic laundering of proceeds of crime. The other key members of the syndicate based in Dubai and India have been identified and will be arrested soon,” DCP (IFSO) Gaurav Tyagi said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)