Cyber Cell foil's bid to usurp Rs 110 crore from bank account of diamond company

The gang includes a deputy sarpanch of a village in Gangapur tehsil.

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Cyber Cell police foiled a bid to

siphon-off Rs 110 crore from the account of a Diamond Trading Company - Star Rays - in Bank of India, on Monday. The police by raiding a hotel near Siddharth Garden caught red-handed and arrested six youths.

The gang of hackers were having details of internet banking along with the IDs of 20 reputed companies in India and abroad.

They were aware in detail of the cash deposited in each account. Ironically, they were also having plans to convert Rs 133 crore from the bank account of an international internet company to cryptocurrency.

It so happened that Cyber Cell’s police inspector Praveena Yadav and PSI Rahul Chavan, a few days ago, got a tip about the hacking. Since then they were keeping an eye on the head of the team. During the technical investigation, the cops learnt about the booking of two rooms in Hotel Devpriya on Monday.

Hence under the guidance of the commissioner of police (CP) Manoj Lohiya, deputy commissioner Aparna Gitey and assistant commissioner Dhananjay Patil, the Cyber Cell team comprising Yadav assistant police inspector Amol Satodkar and Chavan raided the hotel rooms. They arrested all of them and produced them before the court where they were awarded two days of police custody remand (PCR) by the judiciary.

The action-taking police team comprised Sanjay Sable, Chandrakant Dande, Rameshwar Kale, Sushant Shelke, Vaibhav Waghchaure, Amol Deshmukh, Sachin Sampal, Gokul Kuttarwade, Amol Sontakke, Abhilash Chaudhary, Sandeep Patil and Praveen Kurhade.

The names of the accused are Shaikh Erfan Shaikh Usman (23, Gawalipura, Cantonment), Waseem Isaq Shaikh (36, Padegaon), Shaikh Kanit Shaikh Ayub (19, District Collectorate campus), Abbas Yunus Shaikh (34, Mitmita), Amol Sainath Karpe (25) and Krishna Balu Karpe (25, both residents of Kodapur Zanjardi, Solegaon) were caught red-handed during the raid. The cell seized six mobile phones and two laptops along with the bank account details of the Star Rage Company from their possession.

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It is learnt that Pune’s Sanjay Kale was providing all the details to Waseem, who has agreed to work for him on the basis of percentage. Waseem then got convinced Erfan to work with him as the latter has a team of eight hackers and they do online work. Erfan was knowing Kanit (a B.Tech student) in one event. He was learning a hacking course. Hence Erfan also made him join the task. Incidentally, the deputy sarpanch of Kodapur Zhanzardi (in Gangapur tehsil) Amol joined his brother in the crime. Erfan runs a hotel, Waseem does private service, Abbas Yunus does a welding job, and Krishna runs a grocery shop. None of the team members knew in detail technically except Kanit and Erfan’s friends. In greed for crores of rupees and overconfidence of accomplishing the task smoothly, they all joined the task.

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The accused were having bank details of 19 prominent companies from India and one foreign company. The police were shocked to know the bank account details of the sister company in India of a reputed internet company. The hackers were eyeing Rs 133 crore which was lying in the account. They were having details of three diamond companies from Gujarat, one life care insurance company, one online payment company, one broking firm and other IT companies.

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Mastermind in Bengaluru, Hyderabad

The masterminds of this online racket are based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, apart from Pune’s Kale. They would identify the bank accounts having crores of rupees and sell this information. Now, the serious question is who sells this information to them. After getting the info, the accused would hire youths and hackers to siphon off the money. Erfan and Waseem were working on the task for the last year, but they were failing due to the non-availability of experts. This time also they had booked the room in the name of others in the hotel and were trying their best to accomplish the task for the last eight days.