An FIR has been filed by Thane Police against a group of individuals, among them an ex-banker, who is accused of hacking into the account of a supplier of payment gateway services and withdrawing money of Rs 16,180 crore. The heist was carried out over time using several different bank accounts.
On Sunday, a police spokesperson from Thane stated that the fraud had been continuing for a while. However, it was discovered following the filing of a complaint regarding the hacking of the company's account and the theft of Rs25 crore. According to a Mint report, no arrests have been made as of yet in the Rs 16,180 crore robbery case.
But when the police started investigating into the complaint, a major theft worth 16,180 crore rupees was discovered. Under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 468 (forgery), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 34 (common intention), an FIR has been filed against Sanjay Singh, Amol Andale @ Aman, Kedar @ Sameer Dighe, Jitendra Pandey, and another unidentified person.
The suspected wrongdoers are charged with illegally forming unregistered partnership firms using fake documents in order to deceive the government. As many as 260 bank accounts have been found to be linked to these duplicitously formed partnership firms, enabling transactions totalling the enormous sum indicated.
A few months ago, an unknown person successfully breached the software of Safex Payout and carried out a Rs 25 crore fraud, which served as the initial impetus for this investigation. The legal counsel for the business quickly reported a hacking and cyber fraud incident to the Srinagar police station, which drove Thane police's cyber cell to take over the investigation.
Investigators were able to further disentangle the complex web of deceit when they discovered a fraudulent transfer of Rs 1.39 crore to an account owned by Riyaal Enterprises, a company having branches in Navi Mumbai's Vashi and Belapur. Law enforcement authorities searched these places and found a treasure trove of paperwork, including multiple bank accounts and company contracts.
When these documents were thoroughly examined, it became clear that five partnership firms had been created at the same address using forgeries and counterfeits to use several people's names. According to Nagpur Today, inquiries posed to workers of Riyaal Enterprises resulted in information on an astounding 250 bank accounts and notarized partnership company agreements, all of which raised red flags.