Delhi Police's Central District said on Thursday, October 29, that it has busted a bank account impersonation syndicate and arrested two men for allegedly defrauding a Bank of India branch at Rajendra Place in New Delhi of Rs 22,56,922 through a fraudulent RTGS transfer, IANS reported. Police said assets worth about Rs 2.50 crore — including gold jewellery, 101 gold coins, cash and an SUV — have been seized across the present and connected cases.
According to police, the case began with a complaint by the branch manager of Bank of India, Rajendra Place. On August 5, a caller allegedly impersonated Deepak Malhotra, a director associated with multiple corporate entities that held accounts at the branch, and first discussed creating a fixed deposit receipt worth Rs 1 crore to gain the officials' confidence.
The caller later claimed the company urgently needed to make a payment but had exhausted its cheque book, and asked for the transaction to be processed by email, police said. A forged payment request was then sent from an email address closely resembling the company's registered address, on a counterfeit company letterhead, instructing the bank to transfer Rs 22,56,922 to another account. When officials sought mandatory indemnity documents, the caller allegedly pressured them by claiming similar transactions had been processed earlier, and the branch processed the RTGS transfer.
An e-FIR was registered at the Cyber Police Station of Central District under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Investigators traced the money to a mule account with Bandhan Bank in West Bengal, and a team led by Sub-Inspector Kamlesh Kumar arrested Vinay Kumar Yadav, 36, a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and Anil Kumar Sehgal, 65, a resident of Noida, Nation Press reported.
Police said Sehgal was also found to be a proclaimed offender who had been absconding for more than seven years in a forged currency case. According to police, the two accused had become acquainted in jail and had prior involvement in cheque-related frauds, and the defrauded funds were converted into assets including gold bought from a jeweller in West Bengal — all allegations that remain subject to investigation and trial.
Police said the arrests have also helped work out six similar cases registered in Gurugram, Palwal and Delhi, involving amounts ranging from Rs 16.65 lakh to Rs 2.98 crore, along with an attempted fraud of Rs 88 lakh. Further investigation is under way to identify other members of the alleged network.