Kota: ICICI Bank RM funnels Rs 4.58 cr from customer accounts, loses most of it in stocks
Kota, Jun 8 (PTI): A relationship manager in an ICICI bank branch in Kota allegedly swindled around Rs 4.58 crore from customers' accounts only to lose the lot of it in the stock market, police on Friday said.
She was arrested last week and is currently under judicial custody, they said.
The accused, Sakshi Gupta, was posted as a relationship manager at ICICI Bank's DCM branch.
Police said she had been pilfering from more than 110 accounts belonging to 41 customers for around two and a half years.
She allegedly invested these amounts in the stock market and lost a large chunk of it, they said.
Branch manager Tarun Dadich filed a complaint against her at the Udhyog Nagar Police Station on February 18, accusing her of siphoning Rs 4.58 crore from customer accounts.
Based on the complaint, Gupta, who worked at the branch from 2020 to 2023, was arrested on May 31.
During the investigation, it was revealed that she changed the mobile numbers linked with several accounts to her relatives' numbers, ensuring that transaction alerts and OTPs were not received by the real account holders.
Sub Inspector Ibrahim said Gupta systematically transferred funds to different accounts, in some cases using an elderly woman's account, who was unaware of the activity, as a "pool account."
By February 15, 2023, she had transferred more than Rs 3 crore to this account alone, he said.
He alleged that Gupta misused debit cards, PINs, and OTPs for these transactions, and even activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts without consent.
She prematurely closed fixed deposits of 31 customers' accounts, funnelling over Rs 1.34 crore. She also took out a personal loan of Rs 3.40 lakh.
Police said that many transactions were conducted using Insta Kiosk installations and various digital banking platforms, with at least four customers' debit cards used for ATM and internet banking.
Proceeds from these activities were sent to demat accounts as part of the attempted cover-up.
Gupta was arrested from her parental home in Chittorgarh district's Rawatbhata.
She was sent to judicial custody after a one-day remand for interrogation, SI Ibrahim said.
Meanwhile, an ICICI Bank spokesperson, in a press note, said, "The interests of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an FIR with the police.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled."
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
