The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed on Thursday, March 7, that it had carried out raids at 67 locations in seven cities in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. This comes after a second round of raids at the same locations in these states to look into any suspicious Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions of ₹820 crore that were made using different UCO Bank accounts in just three days between November 10 and November 13.
According to the CBI FIR, Two support engineers, Avishek Srivastava and Supriya Mallick from LCode Technologies, allegedly modified settings on UCO’s IMPS server without authorization on November 8, 2023. The funds that were recorded in the original account and the destination account (UCO). As a result, UCO Bank accounts were credited with ₹820 crore, without the original banks having to be debited.
The CBI claimed that numerous accounts took advantage of the IMPS inward transactions, which were initiated by about 14,600 account holders of seven private banks, including IDFC First Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, Fincare Small Finance Bank, and Utkarsh Small Finance.
These account holders in a "“syndicated manner" took these transactions into their accounts by plotting and working together with the accused. The FIR pointed out that the UCO Bank's app utilises Connect24, an intermediary tool that interfaces with the core banking system (CBS) for exchanging information on fund transfers.
However, ₹664 crore has been recovered by the bank by marking lien in the accounts and ₹156 crore was the outstanding recovery as on November 16, last year, the bank told the CBI.
Investigation and Raids
Following a complaint from UCO Bank, the CBI initiated action by registering a case on November 21, 2023. The PSU bank reported that between November 10 and 11, 2023, IMPS inward transactions from approximately 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were incorrectly credited to over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders.
On Wednesday, extensive search operations were carried out at 67 locations, including Rajasthan (including Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jalore, Nagaur, Barmer, Phalodi) and Pune. The operation included around 330 police officers from 40 teams, including 120 from the Rajasthan Police, as well as 80 independent witnesses.
Earlier raids carried out in December targeted 13 sites involving that of private individuals and UCO Bank officials in Kolkata and Mangalore. Numerous suspects have been questioned in connection with the case.
In the course of these operations, 43 digital devices, 40 cell phones, two hard drives, and one internet dongle, as well as about 130 damning papers pertaining to UCO Bank and IDFC were taken for forensic examination. A spokeswoman added, "30 suspects were also located and immediately examined.
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