A total of 21 bank officials -- from both public and private sector -- have been arrested in Gurugram, in connection with fraudulent cases across country, so far this year for their alleged involvement in cybercrime cases, police said. Nearly ₹300 crore have been defrauded in Gurugram this year so far, with at least five accused nabbed from the district.
A total of 21 bank officials -- from both public and private sector -- have been arrested in Gurugram, in connection with fraudulent cases across country, so far this year for their alleged involvement in cybercrime cases, police said. Nearly ₹300 crore have been defrauded in Gurugram this year so far, with at least five accused nabbed from the district.

Vishwas Kumar had opened a current account of a fake firm with its address in Sector 45, Noida without any physical verification in September 2023 and had handed over the account to conmen who used it in defrauding ₹7 crore from victims across India.

Next day, two more persons were arrested -- one of whom is Ram Avatar, deputy manager of a public sector bank in Jaipur -- for allegedly opening seven bank accounts and giving their access to cyber criminals for duping people.

Avatar had opened these accounts for ₹7,000 each as commission, police said, adding that one of these accounts were used in duping a Gurugram resident of ₹24.6 lakh in investment fraud.

According to police, bank officials have recently been roped in for their role in cybercrimes and have been accused of providing accounts with forged details to fraudsters operating in cybercrime gangs. As per investigators, the total defrauded amount last year was ₹210 crore and in 2022, it was ₹109 crore.

Siddhant Jain, deputy commissioner of police, cybercrime, said that current accounts were majorly opened by the arrested bank officials in fraudulent ways to help cyber criminals.

“These 21 officials very well knew that the accounts they were opening were to be used in fraudulent activities. They received commission for opening these account. They were not performing any physical address verification of offices for which the current accounts were being opened,” the DCP said.

Investigators said that multiple letters have been written to the Reserve Bank of India, department of financial services and top management of prominent private banks for modifying their internal working and verification pattern for opening accounts so that such activities could be curbed. They said that RBI has been urged to direct the banks to permit changing mobile phone numbers linked to accounts at the time of opening only after three months as cyber criminals get them changed immediately after getting access to any account.

“Most of the banks help us in putting hold on transactions in accounts operated by cyber fraudsters immediately, but still there are a few banks which delay in sharing information or freezing transactions which ultimately benefit the criminals and a victim’s defrauded money is lost,” the DCP added.