Rs 146 cr Cooperative Bank fraud case! UP STF arrests 5 persons, including 2 masterminds

Lucknow: Five persons, including two masterminds of the Cooperative Bank fraud case in which Rs 146 crore was digitally transferred by hackers, have been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police`s Special Task Force (STF). However, the hackers from Delhi are still on the run. According to the police, the cyber thugs spent Rs 1 crore in 18 months, hired three hackers, used six devices, used three keylogger softwares and roped in three employees to breach the bank`s server to transfer the money on October 15.

Those arrested have been identified as Dhruv Kumar Srivastava, Ramraj (mastermind), Karmveer Singh, Akash Kumar, and Bhupendra Singh. Additional SP, STF, Vishal Vikram said that Ramraj is section officer in Uttar Pradesh`s Home Department, while Karmveer is an assistant manager in the payment section of the Cooperative Bank`s Sitapur branch.

The team recovered a bank ID card, 25 sets of Aadhaar Cards and blank cheques, eight mobile phones, and seven ATM cards from the accused. They have owned up to their crime. 

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In his confession, Dhruv Kumar Srivastava revealed how they hired a hacker who had expertise in taking remote access to the bank`s system. On October 15, five teams of the gang assembled at KD Singh Babu Stadium. "The gang managed to breach the server and Rs 146 crore was transferred," said the officer.

After the money transfer, the gang reached an eatery for refreshments when the bank`s staff got an alert and the money transfer was frozen, the ASP added. When the gang members came to know of this, they panicked and fled to different destinations. The accused said they were working on the `project` for the last 18 months and had also spent Rs 50 lakh in purchasing the devices.

Kanpur Schoolboy found dead in mysterious circumstances

A class 12 student, who had gone reportedly missing from Uttar Pradesh`s Kanpur, was found dead in a secluded place near his school, police said. Assistant Divisional Commissioner of Police (Kanpur), Brijesh Srivastava, said that there were no injury marks on the body of 18-year-old Ronil Sarkar. "We are waiting for the post-mortem report. The police will probe how the boy reached the secluded place, which is around 500 metres from his school," he added.

Police, meanwhile, have converted the missing report case into a murder FIR. According to police, Ronil went to school on Monday morning. In the afternoon, when he did not return home, his family began to look for him and met his tuition teacher. After failing to trace him, Ronil`s family lodged a missing person report.

On Tuesday, a local informed the police about spotting the body of a youth near a railway track. Since the body had a school uniform, they contacted school authorities for identification.