8 bankers arrested in 1,550cr cyberfraud case

Surat: Udhna police on Tuesday arrested eight bank officials, including the area head of RBL Bank, in connection with alleged transactions involving the proceeds of cyberfraud worth Rs 1,550 crore.

These bankers allegedly helped open 62 mule bank accounts for the perpetrators of cybercrime, where crores in swindled money was deposited from across India. Udhna police first began probing this racket in May after they arrested Kirat Jadwani, Meet Khokhar, and Meet Italia in a cyberfraud case.

The proceeds of fraud were received in 164 bank accounts across several banks. Police are expected to arrest more bank officials in this matter.

Those arrested are RBL Bank officials from the Varachha, Sahara Darwaja and Vesu branches. They include Amit Gupta (area head), Arun Ghoghari (service delivery manager), Mancy Goti, Kalpesh Katheriya, Ashish Dhadiya, Anil Jani, Naresh Manani and Kalpesh Kakadiya.

Deputy commissioner of police (Zone 2) Bhagirath Gadhvi told TOI: "All eight bank officials helped the accused open 62 mule current bank accounts. The highest number, 26 accounts, were opened by Mancy Goti, followed by 11 accounts by Manani, both Varachha branch employees. They got between Rs 20,000 and Rs 1 lakh per account opening to ignore missing documents or mandatory details. They knew that a ‘fake shop' had been created for the account opening, which they were supposed to visit. We found that senior officers Arun Gupta and Arun Ghoghari took lakhs as commission. Gupta, the area head, took commissions from the cyberfraud money deposited in various accounts."

Apart from RBL Bank accounts, police also found Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank accounts where cyberfraud money had been deposited. Police will focus on other banks now to determine if their employees were involved in the racket.

This crime syndicate has tentacles reaching Cuba, China, Malaysia and Thailand, as multiple chat records and communication records were found from the three prime accused and their offices during raids. An 11-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed under DCP Chirag Patel and inspector S N Desai to probe this matter.

Gang planted Goti in bank

The case involves many several conspiracies, one of which is the employment of Mancy Goti, who worked in the office of Kirat Jadwani and was planted in the bank. Based on Jadwani's recommendation, she was interviewed by RBL Bank officials. Once Mancy was employed, she opened the highest number of these fraudulent accounts, 26 of 62, as she was already part of Jadwani's gang.

Money taken in cash and favours

On how the bank officials accepted the cyberfraud money, an investigator said: "Most of them took cash from the accused after doing them favours. Gupta and Ghoghari also accepted other favours, such as payment of hospital and credit card bills, among others. Gupta decided on a percentage of every tranche of cyberfraud money deposited in the accounts opened through his team. Gupta and Ghoghari received lakhs from this."