Thief steals businessman's bank details and siphons off Rs 3.3 crore

On Saturday, the cyber police arrested a man for stealing more than Rs 3.3 crore from the bank account of a businessman using a fraudulently obtained SIM card via which he received OTP for his transactions.

The businessman is a publisher of school books. Around July 7-9, he realised that he had been cheated and on July 12 he approached the police. With the help of the digital trail of the transactions, the cyber cell to zero in on the accused, Amanatullah Shaikh.

Amanatullah Shaikh aged 33, who is married and lives in Baiganwada, Govandi. "We are trying to find out where he duplicated the documents," said a source.

Shaikh works as a small-time constructions contractor, and he knew the businessman's details, also his contact number. Pretending to be the businessman, he went to one of the mobile service providers. He requested to block his (the businessman's) number as "he had lost his mobile phone". He submitted duplicate documents proving the businessman's identity and got a new SIM card.

An officer said, "He put the SIM in his phone and began transacting from the businessman's bank account, using OTPs sent through the new SIM card to validate the transactions."

The police are investigating how Shaikh obtained the businessman's identity documents, which also include his Aadhaar card. They denied commenting on how Shaikh got the businessman's net banking details, with account number and password.

An officer said that the crime hint about a syndicate operation. He said, "Several persons are suspected to be involved. It's not easy for anyone to get someone else's bank account details and also identity cards. Shaikh's arrest is just the beginning of our probe."

The police have enquired for CCTV footage and other details from the mobile service provider.

Out of the stolen Rs 3.3 crore, Rs 25 lakh was transferred to Shaikh's account. "He used around Rs 1.5 lakh to buy gold and around Rs 4 lakh for other things. We have written to the bank to freeze his account," said DCP Vishal Thakur (cyber police).