Archana More

UPI

Sandip Ashok Mule

Soni

Milton Medocore Pvt Ltd

Pune Mirror

Narayangoan

Japan

KYC

In an unprecedented case of hacking and money- laundering, four persons in just 49 days hacked the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) to siphon off Rs 6.14 crore from several accounts of 23 branches in Pune district, for investment in cryptocurrency Bitcoin through three companies in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.Police have frozen all three accounts of the companies which were involved in the transactions of Bitcoin, a virtual currency legalised in few countries but yet to get the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nod. The cybercrime cell of Pune police recovered Rs 4.58 crore from the accused, which involved Bitcoin of Rs 1 crore.Bitcoin, given its nature of encrypted technology, is not regulated yet has high returns on investment, attracting thousands of people worldwide.Besides Bitcoin, cops also seized 40 cellphones and 27 SIM cards from the accused and has identified Jitendra Maruti Rindhe (42),(30), Dipak Sarjerao Kharat (26) and Rajesh Janardhan Budkhule alias(48) — all residents of Buldhana, around 400 km northeast of Pune — as The accused (in many cases their own accounts held with BoM) used the much-advertised UPI app to collect money from the accounts of the bank customers, who did not even have the requisite balance. They exploited a bug or loophole in the bank’s UPI app, developed by Mumbai-based InfrasoftTech. The accused also used real time gross settlement (RTGS) to send money received into another account.The investigation revealed that the 50 accused had formed a chain of account holders of BoM to commit the offence. They also approached 15 farmers who are account holders of the bank and took their SIM cards on the pretext that they will give monthly Rs 5,000 from the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.On March 8, BoM deputy zonal manager Niranjan Shripad Purohit lodged an FIR at Shivajinagar police station under sections 66(c) (punishment for identity theft) and 66(d) (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The investigation was transferred to the cybercrime cell due to the technical nature of the crime.During investigation, the cybercrime cell found that some of the misappropriated amount was transferred to various intermediary companies, including Zeb IT Services Pvt Ltd, Oracle Retail Pvt Ltd and— all in Ahmedabad. After analysing the transactions related to misappropriation, the investigation officer had put a debit freeze on the bank account of Zeb IT Services Pvt. Ltd.Cybercrime cell senior inspector Sunil Pawar told, “Rajesh Budkule is the prime accused in this case. We have found that the accused had formed a chain-like a multi-level marketing (MLM) system and approached farmers fromand Junnar. They took their SIM cards, which were linked with account numbers of BoM on the pretext that they will be provided monthly funds from Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. In this way, they used the UPI app to commit the offence. Two accused are still absconding.”The BoM has filed an application in the court, demanding strict action against the companies who are involved in Bitcoin business. Advocate Rajas Pingle, representing BoM, said, “The RBI circular in February says it has not given any licence or authorisation to any entity or company to operate such schemes or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency. The government needs to clear India’s position on virtual currencies, especially when there are growing concerns of their use in money laundering or financing terrorism.”Advocate Abhijeet Bidkar, representing Zeb IT Services Pvt Ltd, told Pune Mirror that Zeb is India’s leading virtual currency exchange. “Virtual currencies are legal in several countries, including. Users can only do transactions on Zebpay after submittingdocuments. All purchase and sale happen strictly via bank accounts only and no cash. Hence, all transactions are recorded and easily identifiable. All these users were easily identified and we are helping the local agency to recover the funds.”█ The RBI circular issued in February says it has not given any licence to deal with Bitcoin. The govt needs to clear India’s position on virtual currency