Mumbai: Maharashtra Cyber arrests man in Rs 13.96 crore fraud on Central Bank of India account

Maharashtra Cyber police in Mumbai have arrested one accused in a Rs 13.96 crore fraud case involving an account of the Central Bank of India. The accused has been named as Mehul Simaria, aged 49.

Cases of money being withdrawn from customers' accounts through online fraud and internet banking are being reported regularly. This case is different. The money was taken not from a customer's account but from the bank's own account, and Rs 13.96 crore was routed through RTGS into accounts in various banks.

The case dates to October last year. The Central Bank of India holds a treasury account with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the money was fraudulently sent out of that account. On October 15 and 17, RTGS transactions were manipulated and large sums were transferred without authorisation to beneficiary accounts in different banks across the country.

According to the complaint filed by the bank, the RTGS process running from the bank's secure communication channel to the RBI's payment processing system was allegedly tampered with. As a result, Rs 13.96 crore was fraudulently debited through 187 unauthorised transactions. Within just three days, the money was moved to 107 beneficiary accounts in 36 different banks.

A case was registered at the nodal cyber police station of the Maharashtra Cyber department in Mumbai, under Sections 318(2), 318(3), 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 43, 66 and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Mumbai Cyber police investigated the case in depth and then succeeded in arresting the accused, Mehul Simaria. The investigation also found that Rs 1 crore of the defrauded money had been deposited in the accused's account before being sent on to other accounts.