The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched probes into two separate cases of bank fraud wherein a private company and its officials allegedly caused a wrongful loss of ₹98 crore to the erstwhile United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce, now merged with the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
First case
In the first case, a written complaint was received in Dec 2021 from assistant general manager Uma Shankar Sinha of PNB’s Cuffe Parade branch, alleging that a Byculla-based diamond cutting and polishing company and its directors were party to a criminal conspiracy to cheat the bank between 2006 and 2012.
The CBI has claimed in its FIR that the accused directors of the company induced the erstwhile United Bank of India to sanction various credit facilities to provide funds as working capital under multiple banking arrangements.
Large number of entries of funds transfer to accounts in other banks
It’s further alleged that a large number of entries of transfer of funds were made to sister/allied concerns with accounts in other banks. The company had transferred ₹8.12 crore to Mauritius based subsidiary firms and ₹43.80 crore to other group companies within India.
The account of the company was classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) in July 2012 and was subsequently declared as fraud and accordingly reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Nov 2017 with the amount of fraud at ₹49.21 crore.
Second Case
In another case, a written complaint was received in Dec 2021 from PNB, alleging that the firm, its directors and other accused persons, from 2008 to 2012, were party to a criminal conspiracy to cheat the erstwhile Oriental Bank of Commerce.
Transferred funds into own bank accounts in other banks
It has been alleged that the company made huge transfers to its own accounts with other banks and to the account of other sister, associate concern companies. The account of the company was classified as NPA in Aug 2012 and was subsequently declared as fraud and accordingly reported to the RBI in June 2018 by showing an amount of fraud of ₹49.55 crore, the FIR stated.
Mumbai Cyber Safe:
According to Cyber Crime Cell under Crime Branch of mumbai police , the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, online commerce platforms where fraudsters, posing as bank /platform officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” explained DCP Cyber Crime , Balsingh Rajput.
FPJ
