Two held in ₹8.9-cr cyber fraud case

Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two persons in a cyber fraud case in which nearly Rs 9 crore was siphoned off from a bank, a private engineering company and a construction group, an official said on Thursday.

The accused orchestrated the fraud by gaining unauthorised access to their bank accounts by manipulating the registered mobile numbers and email addresses, the EOW said in a statement.

“Once the credentials were changed, the accused obtained Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) access and carried out 94 fraudulent transactions between July 11 and August 30, 2024, transferring a total of Rs 8.94 crore to various accounts,” it said.

The fraud came to light following a complaint by the branch head of the bank alleging that a fraudulent mobile number change request was processed at their branch. Later, another request for CIB access was made at the Osmanabad branch in Maharashtra by a person posing as an employee of the engineering company. It was later confirmed that forged documents were submitted for both requests, the statement said.

A case was registered in this regard, and investigation revealed the involvement of Nitin Birmal Dongare (36), a vegetable vendor from Dharashiv in Maharashtra. He had suffered losses in his business and planned the fraud with Ashish Khandelwal (32), an assistant manager of the private bank which also has a branch in Delhi, the EOW said.

Khandelwal leaked sensitive customer data and forged signatures, enabling Dongare and others to manipulate account details. Dongare was traced to Pune and arrested on April 2.

He later confessed to his involvement in the crime and named Khandelwal, who was arrested in Delhi on April 8, the statement said.

Police said Dongare frequently changed locations and used his wife’s e-commerce account to receive items while evading detection.

He was arrested with the help of technical surveillance and the cooperation of the Pune police. Further investigation is underway to identify associates of the accused involved in the fraud, police said. — PTI