Nigerian national among 4 cyber fraudsters held in Noida for siphoning off Rs 16 crore from Nainital Bank
The Noida police on Monday arrested four men of a cyber fraud gang, including a Nigerian national, for allegedly defrauding a bank of Rs 16 crore in connection with a case registered in June 2024, officials said.
They also seized Rs 50,000 cash, eight chequebooks, seven mobile phones, one laptop, two passports, and drugs worth Rs 20 lakh from the accused identified as Umealakei Emeka (Nigerian national), 53, Mohammed Shahvez, 26, Amit Gupta, 28, and Deepak Gupta, 39, said officials at Sector-36 Cyber Thana Police.
According to Ram Badan Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Noida, the main accused, Mohammad Shavez, provided account details of innocent people at Nainital Bank through which the accused used to transfer the defrauded money.
Singh said that as per the First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Sector 36 police station, fraudsters reportedly hacked and looted Rs 16.1 crore from Nainital Bank’s Noida branch.
“The fraudsters accomplished their plan by hacking into the bank’s server and then transferring the money to 84 different accounts,” said the DCP.
According to the police, the bank’s IT manager, Sumit Srivastava, noticed the scam during a routine reconciliation of the bank’s balance sheet.
He noticed Rs 36,09,04,020 in the RTGS account balance sheets and registered a case at Noida Cyber Crime Police Station, the police said.
He also sought assistance from CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) to probe the matter.
The police said Emelka has been involved in cybercrime and the drug trade for a long time. “We have also recovered MDMA tablets, which is about Rs 20 lakh,” Singh added.
