<![CDATA[Cyber crime officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have solved the case of multiple Rs.49 withdrawals from over 2,000 accounts of a nationalized bank in Karnataka, last year. A gang from Jharkhand, led by a 19-year-old high school dropout, was arrested on Friday on the charge of hacking over 2,020 accounts of State Bank of Mysore (SBM) customers in a span of two days in April last. The accused — Suraj Mohali, a native of Mirga village, Jamtara district, Jharkhand, along with his associates — began to withdraw Rs.49 from the savings bank accounts and Mastercard holders of SBM in Bengaluru, Sringeri, Mangaluru, and Tirthahalli. Within a few hours, the accused made as many as 1.56 lakh transactions and withdrew Rs.79 lakh. They then diverted this money to various bank accounts that they had opened by submitting fake documents. They used some of the cash to recharge mobile phones, which helped the cyber police to track them down. The police recovered details of hundreds of bank accounts from Suraj. He reportedly confessed that they were part of a bigger network operational in Jharkhand since many years. “Suraj told us that the kingpin, who is yet to be identified, would give them details of the bank accounts and instruct them to withdraw not more than Rs.49 from each account,” a senior police officer said. The cyber police brought Suraj and his associate Kimmi Kumar Mondal (20), along with two others, to Bengaluru for questioning. Investigations into the online fraud that shook over 2,000 SBM customers revealed details that stumped CID sleuths. During interrogation, the accused told the police that many youths in their village in Jharkhand were trained and involved in online frauds across the country. “We cracked the case after tracking the accused for over a year. We are questioning them to know more about the racket,” said Mr. Chandrashekhar, Inspector-General of Police.]]>
