‘Suspicious’ IMPS transactions worth Rs.820 crore uncovered, CBI conducts raids

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched an extensive investigation into a significant financial fraud involving suspicious Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions totalling ₹820 crore across multiple UCO Bank accounts. The bank initiated a complaint, revealing that between November 10 and 13, 2023, IMPS inward transactions from 14,600 accounts of seven private banks were mistakenly posted in the accounts of over 41,000 UCO Bank accounts.

The alleged wrongdoing implicated two support engineers from a private company, Avishek Srivastava and Supriya Mallick, engaged by UCO Bank to develop and maintain its mobile banking app.

The engineers reportedly orchestrated lakhs of IMPS transactions, manipulating settings on UCO’s IMPS server without proper authorization. This resulted in the wrongful crediting of ₹820 crore to UCO Bank accounts without corresponding debits from the originating banks. Account holders then capitalized on this situation, making illegitimate gains by withdrawing funds through various banking channels. The CBI conducted searches at 67 locations in seven cities in Rajasthan and Maharashtra as part of its ongoing investigation.

The raids, conducted in connection with the case filed by UCO Bank on November 21, aimed to uncover evidence related to the fraudulent transactions.

Approximately 130 incriminating documents were seized during the operations, along with 43 digital devices, including 40 mobile phones, two hard disks, and an internet dongle, for forensic analysis. The investigation highlighted a syndicated conspiracy involving several account holders collaborating with the accused engineers to take advantage of the fraudulent transactions.

The core of the issue involves UCO Bank’s mobile banking app, which uses an intermediary tool called Connect24, interfacing with the core banking system (CBS) for fund transfers. Srivastava and Mallick allegedly changed settings on the IMPS server, causing a failed response to be sent to originating banks while UCO accounts were credited. This allowed customers to withdraw the wrongfully credited amounts.

The CBI, after conducting initial searches in December 2023, escalated its operations, targeting 67 locations to uncover the extent of the fraud. Dozens of suspects have been examined in connection with this extensive financial fraud case.