An office assistant of Punjab National Bank in Greater Noida and a private individual have been arrested for alleged fraud. The fraudulent activity involved Rs 10.24 crore in unauthorized withdrawals from multiple customer accounts. Punjab National Bank’s investigation began after a customer reported suspicious debit transactions in her account. The accused allegedly carried out the transactions over three years using compromised banking credentials.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an office assistant of Punjab National Bank (PNB) posted in Greater Noida and a private individual from Pune in connection with an alleged Rs 10.24 crore fraud at the bank’s Pi Sector branch, PTI reported citing officials on Tuesday.The agency registered an FIR on October 29 over the alleged unauthorised withdrawal of Rs 10.24 crore from multiple customer accounts, reportedly siphoned off by the accused bank employee, Deepanshi, according to the report.
The CBI has alleged that Deepanshi carried out the transactions in connivance with Ashutosh Pathak, the private individual arrested in Pune, and other unidentified persons.
The agency has secured transit remand for Pathak from the Special Court for CBI cases in Pune, Maharashtra, the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
The FIR names Deepanshi, Pathak and unidentified public and private persons as accused under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) relating to criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct by public servants.
The case also invokes provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Information Technology Act.
According to PNB’s complaint, the alleged fraud came to light on September 16 when a customer approached the branch head over three suspicious debit transactions in her account.
The bank subsequently identified unauthorised debits amounting to Rs 10.24 crore across several customer accounts, which were allegedly carried out over the past three years.
PNB said a reconciliation exercise was underway to establish the exact amount involved in the suspected fraud.
The bank’s complaint, which forms part of the CBI FIR, stated that when the branch head questioned Deepanshi about the suspicious transactions, she “broke down and admitted that the transactions were carried out on the instructions of one of the account holders, Ashutosh Pathak…who is known to her”.
A preliminary examination of system logs, user activity records and transaction details indicated that multiple unauthorised transactions had allegedly been carried out over an extended period by misusing core banking solution (CBS) user IDs belonging to different branch officials, the complaint stated.
(With inputs from PTI)
