Two held for defrauding Noida authority of ₹3.9 cr in 2023 FD scam

On June 30, 2023, posing as an accounts officer from the Noida authority’s finance department, the accused allegedly transferred ₹3.90 crore

The Noida Police have arrested two people, including the mastermind, for allegedly defrauding the Noida authority of ₹3.9 crore in 2023 during a fixed deposit scam, officers said on Saturday.

The bank accounts of all suspects have been frozen by the police and whatever amount is found in them will be recovered … The two had come to Delhi earlier this week to plan more similar frauds, said DCP Avasthy. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

Police identified the mastermind as Manu Bhola, a native of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, along with his aide as Tridib Das, a native of Kolkata, who were held on Friday by a joint team of Crime Branch and Sector 58 police station, Noida, from a hotel in Delhi.

“Seven type of stamp seals, five Aadhar cards, two PAN cards, 14 debit/credit cards, five cheque books, two passbooks and about 115 printed documents of different private and government companies have been recovered from the possession of the accused,” said Shakti Avasthy, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (crime).

Bhola carried a reward ₹25,000 on his arrest.

On June 30, 2023, posing as an accounts officer from the Noida authority’s finance department, a conman allegedly transferred ₹3.90 crore from the authority’s bank account to various other accounts, using a fake identity card, officers said.

The amount ( ₹3.90 crore) was swindled out of the authority’s fixed deposit (FD) account with Bank of India’s (BoI) Sector 62 branch. The account was opened in the BoI on June 21 by the Noida authority while a transfer of ₹200 crore to invest in the FD was done on June 26, they added.

The fraud got exposed on July 5, 2023 as the suspect tried to transfer ₹9 crore, again from the same account, said authority officials, who filed a first information report (FIR) at the Sector 58 police station on the same day.

While ₹3.9 crore was fraudulently transferred out of the authority’s account, the BoI successfully stopped transfer of ₹9 crore during the second fraudulent transaction, officers said.

In last 14 months, the Noida Police had arrested five people in the case -- Abdul Khadri (arrested on July 6, 2023), Sudhir Chaudhary, Murari Jatav, Rajesh Babu – (on July 11, 2023) and Rajesh Kumar Pandey (on July 15, 2023).

During investigation, it was found that the suspects had managed to enter the authority’s office without making an official entry in the register. The men went to the finance/accounts department posing as business coordinators (north region) of Bank of India (BoI) between June 15 and 26, said officers.

“Later, the suspects got hold of the Noida authority’s letter to Bank of India for opening an FD account before it reached the branch. Subsequently, the conman made a fake letter posing as an accounts officer authorised to operate the account on behalf of the Noida authority and approached the bank and committed the fraud,” said DCP Avasthy.

During interrogation, Bhola said that he coordinated with all the other members of the gang to commit the fraud.

“The main mastermind Bhola had coordinated with different members of the gang. His main modus operandi is to somehow get information from government departments about where their bank accounts are located and then hatch a plan to take power of attorney to operate those accounts using forged documents,” the DCP added.

He also told the police that the ₹3.9 crore that they had successfully swindled from the Noida authority’s account had been divided among them and five others of the gang equally.

“The bank accounts of all suspects have been frozen by the police and whatever amount is found in them will be recovered … The two had come to Delhi earlier this week to plan more similar frauds,” said the DCP on Saturday.

The two arrested suspects were produced before court and sent to judicial custody on Saturday, said officers.