New Delhi: Normally in India, people go to banks to keep their money safe. But what if the bank turns out to be the most unsafe place? Well, instances of bank robbery are plenty in the history. However, there is one incident in Rajasthan which has shocked everyone.
In Kota, a woman office of a bank leveraged the trust placed by the customer on the bank by duping them of over Rs 4 crore. She wanted to invest in stocks to generate high returns in a short period. To do that, she used the money in the accounts of over 41 customers. It went on for a couple of years, and the bank was unaware about the fraud.
The perpetrator, identified as Sakshi Gupta, was the ICICI bank’s relationship manager in Kota who misused the ‘User FD (Fixed Deposit)’ link and withdrew Rs 4.58 crores from 41 customers’ 110 account. She committed the crime between 2020 and 2023 and invested the money in the stock market. However, she faced heavy losses in the market and failed to deposit the money back in the accounts. The police has arrested her at her sister’s wedding on June 5, and she has been sent to judicial custody.
How was the scam exposed?
The scam was exposed after a customer went to the bank to inquire about his FD and on February 18, the bank filed a case with the police. The woman went so far as to change the mobile numbers of the customers linked with the accounts to not give them the knowledge about the transaction messages.
Ibrahim Khan, the investigating officer, said, “She linked the phone numbers of her family members to these accounts and withdrew more than Rs 4 crore. She even devised a system that she used to get the OTPs on her system so that the account holders don’t get a whiff of the fraud.” The incident has reportedly created a distrust among the customers in that region.
