A high-value banking scam has surfaced at ICICI Bank's DCM branch in Kota, Rajasthan. The relationship manager at the branch, Sakshi Gupta, is accused of having swindled Rs 4.58 crore from more than 110 customers between 2020 and 2023. She lost all the amount in attempting to earn a profit in the stock market, rather than benefiting from the embezzled funds. She was taken into custody on May 31 and remains in judicial custody.
How The Fraud Was Conceived And Perpetrated
As per the Rajasthan Police, Gupta, from her position in the bank, made use of customer account information. She affected at least 41 account holders by altering their registered mobile numbers without them being aware. She substituted these with phone numbers from her own family members, ensuring that OTPs and transaction notifications went unnoticed by the account holders.
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Breaking Fixed Deposits And Digital Misuse
One of the most critical ways Gupta did this was by pre-maturely encashing fixed deposits. She withdrew Rs 1.35 crore from the FDs of 31 customers through the bank's 'User FD' facility and transferred it to unauthorised accounts. She also availed of a personal loan of Rs 3.4 lakh in another person's name and misused digital banking facilities such as Insta Kiosk, ATMs, and net banking. Investigators stated she even used the debit cards of four unsuspecting clients.
Money Invested In The Stock Market
The money was not being spent on personal luxuries or buying property. Rather, Gupta invested all of it in the stock market in hopes of making profits. Besides the customer's money, she also laundered Rs 40-50 lakh from her family's bank accounts. She employed the same methods to freeze OTPs and alerts for these accounts as well. But her investments never produced any returns, and she lost almost the whole amount.
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How The Fraud Came To Light
The fraud came to light when a retired citizen found that Rs 3.22 crore had been taken out of her account on February 15, 2023. She complained, which led branch manager Tarun Dadhich to lodge a police complaint on February 18. Gupta was finally arrested after months of probe on May 31, a day when she had gone to attend her sister's wedding.
