Vinod M Jain
Conmen posing as a director of a city-based private company allegedly duped the chief manager of a nationalised bank and fraudulently obtained Rs.17.9 lakh through forged instructions and deceptive online communication.
According to a complaint filed by Chief Manager of Nationalised bank as SBIs Wilson Garden branch,the fraud began on June 9 when he received a WhatsApp voice call from a man identifying himself as Rajesh Chandra Jayashankar,purportedly a director of a Bengaluru-based private company that maintained accounts with the bank.
During the conversation,the caller expressed interest in placing fixed deposits worth between Rs.2 crore and Rs.3 crore with the branch.
Claiming to be a senior company official,he continued communicating with bank officials through WhatsApp over the next two days.
On June 10,the caller allegedly instructed the bank to process urgent fund transfers on behalf of the company, citing business requirements and requesting that the transactions be completed before his proposed visit to the branch.
The requests appeared genuine and were accompanied by documents that matched records available with the bank.
A search on the Truecaller application reportedly displayed the caller’s identity as“Raja”,further lending credibility to the communication.
Believing the instructions to be authentic,bank officials processed two transactions from the company’s account,transferring Rs.9.40 lakh to an ESAF Small Finance Bank account and Rs.8.50 lakh to a Kotak Mahindra Bank account.
The fraud came to light on June 12 when Narasimha Reddy, Finance Manager of the company, visited the branch and informed officials that neither the company nor its directors had authorised the transactions.
Bank officials then realised that they had fallen victim to an impersonation scam.
Subsequent attempts to contact the caller proved futile as the mobile number used for communication had been switched off.
Following the discovery,the bank alerted the beneficiary banks and initiated measures to freeze the recipient accounts. Investigators managed to freeze certain accounts and trace part of the funds.
However, they found that Rs.5 lakh from the Kotak Mahindra Bank account had already been transferred to another account before preventive action could be taken.
Police suspect that the accused used mobile phones, WhatsApp messages,forged documents and other electronic means to impersonate a company director and induce bank officials to transfer funds.
Preliminary investigations have identified the suspects as Kashim Ansari,Saba Aftab Bagdadi and Mohammad Zubair.
A case has been registered at Wilson Garden Police Station under Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000,and Sections 318(4),319(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita(BNS), 2023.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining funds and identify others involved in the fraud.
