Bolangir: Days after an OTV report on a fraud worth lakhs of rupees at Bolangir Central Co-operative Bank, the district police on Sunday arrested two persons including the prime accused involved in the racket.
Based on the FIR registered on 4th October 2019, police arrested one Nilamani Tripathy, the contractual employee of the bank suspected to be the mastermind behind the fraud.
Police today revealed the unique modus operandi behind the crime stating that not only Nilamani but another suspect named Swagat Mishra was also involved in the theft. According to sources, Nilamani allegedly used a bunch of new ATM cards and their PINs from the bank, waiting to be delivered to customers, in the crime. He allegedly withdrew lakhs of rupees with the help of the debit cards and also used log in-ID and password of other employees. Besides, he also allegedly changed specimen signature of different bank accounts for the purpose.
As per reports, at least 12 account holders of the bank were duped to the tune of Rs 10 lakh through their debit cards in October this year.
Following the incident, police raided the residence of the accused on suspicion of theft and seized fixed deposit account documents of some customers. After going through detailed call records and CCTV footage of the ATM from where Nilamani withdrew the amount, police confirmed his involvement in the crime.
The Cooperative bank authorities said that since the provision of debit cards was issued in the bank just a year ago, there were a lot of customers who were issued cards against their accounts but hadn’t received that in person till then. So it was suspected that taking advantage of the new unused debit cards and their PINs, Nilamani might have used to dupe the money.