A joint operation by the Cyber Cell and Uttar Pradesh Police led to the arrest of seven individuals linked to a massive Rs120 crore fraud targeting the APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU). The gang is accused of opening a fraudulent bank account in the name of the university, duping bank officials into transferring large sums of money to a Gujarat-based charitable trust.
According to police, the criminals first approached a nationalized bank where AKTU already held an account. Posing as official representatives of the university, they managed to open a second account in the university’s name. Using this fake account, the fraudsters tricked bank staff into transferring Rs120 crore in five separate installments.
Once the money was transferred, the gang diverted the funds to the account of a Gujarat-based trust in another nationalized bank. The suspicious transactions were eventually detected by the bank officials, prompting an audit that uncovered the fraud. Upon discovering the irregularities, the bank alerted the authorities, leading to the swift arrest of the seven accused individuals on Tuesday.
The arrested gang members have been identified as Devendra Prasad, Prabha Shankar Joshi, and Uday Patel from Gujarat, along with Rajesh Babu of Unnao, Girish Chandra and Shailesh Kumar Raghuvanshi from Lucknow, Dastgeer Alam of Amethi, and Krishna Kant of Basti district. The police were able to recover Rs119 crore from the accused after halting further transactions.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Prabal Pratap Singh revealed that the fraudsters had procured a letter from the bank’s branch manager, Anuj Kumar Saxena, who had been on vacation. Using this letter, they impersonated AKTU’s authorized signatory and opened the fraudulent fixed deposit (FD) account at the Vidhan Sabha Marg branch. They then obtained a cheque book and transferred the funds to the Gujarat-based company’s account, from which they managed to withdraw around Rs1 crore.
The scam came to light after Anuj Kumar Saxena, the bank manager, filed a complaint on June 12. Saxena explained that while he was vacationing in Manali on June 3, he received a call from one of the fraudsters, Shailesh Kumar Raghuvanshi, who claimed to need a fixed deposit. Saxena directed Raghuvanshi to visit the bank and arranged for another official to handle the case. On June 4, a man named Jai Singh, claiming to be AKTU’s finance officer, contacted Saxena to inquire about the FD rates.
Saxena said that following this exchange, the gang successfully facilitated the transfer of Rs49 crore, Rs49 crore, and Rs22 crore from the Jankipuram branch to the Vidhan Sabha Marg branch. It was only when the bank grew suspicious that the payment to the Gujarat-based trust was halted, preventing further loss.
The police continue to investigate the matter, with the arrest of the accused being a major breakthrough in solving the case.
