Hyderabad cybercrime wing arrests Kotak Mahindra sales manager, 51 others in Rs 88.3 crore fraud

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cybercrime wing arrested 52 persons, including three senior bank officials of Kotak Mahindra, during a special operation conducted by seven teams across various states.

The other arrested persons are wanted in 74 cases from Telangana and 576 cases throughout India, accused of being involved in fraud totalling Rs 88.3 crore.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, police commissioner CV Anand said the cybercrime officials uncovered as many as 33 substantial cases following the significant operation.

Details of the cases

The cases included three cases of fraud each related to trading, employment and social media; four digital fraud arrests; six investment frauds; two data thefts; one case each related to part-time employment, APK file fraud, USDT purchase fraud, and nine tipline (CSAM)-related cases.

Anand said that to find and capture the accused, the teams worked with police departments from other states. “To identify the networks underlying these fraud schemes, the operations were carried out using sophisticated investigative techniques and comprehensive intelligence,” the commissioner said.

Three bank officials arrested for Rs 2.98 crore trading fraud

Informing the details of the arrested persons, the CP said the three bank officials arrested were identified as Kata Srinivasa Rao, a sales manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank; Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad, an assistant vice-president of Axis Bank in Bengaluru; and Shubham Kumar Jha, a deputy manager at RBL Bank in Bangalore. The trio were arrested for pocketing Rs 2.98 crore in trading fraud.

Elaborating further, the CP said that Imamuddin Dharawad enabled fraudulent activities by authorising illegitimate transactions and circumventing standard banking protocols, which allowed the criminals to siphon off large sums of money. Kumar Jha also played a significant role in enabling the fraudulent transactions by abusing his access to sensitive financial data and facilitating unauthorised transfers, he added.

Sales manager created mule accounts using customers

To enable widespread financial fraud, Srinivasa Rao took advantage of his position to lure gullible clients into fraudulent schemes and helped open accounts that were used for money laundering.

A total of Rs. 87.90 lakh was seized by the police from the arrested, including 43 cell phones, 39 ATM cards, 17 passbooks, 54 check books, 16 SIM cards, three computers, 13 shell stamps, nine Aadhaar and PAN cards, three QR codes, net cash of Rs 47.90 lakh and cryptocurrency valued at Rs 40 lakh, Anand said.

Furthermore, the accused’s bank accounts have been frozen with amounts totalling Rs 2.87 crore, according to Anand. The special operation took place in Hyderabad, West Bengal, Bihar, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, and Surat in Gujarat and Karnataka, he added.