A former relationship manager at ICICI Bank’s branch in Rajasthan’s Kota has been arrested for allegedly siphoning off Rs 4.58 crore from the accounts of at least 41 unsuspecting customers over a period of more than two years.
The accused, Sakshi Gupta, worked at the bank’s DCM area branch from 2020 to 2023. She was arrested by the Udhyog Nagar police on May 31 following a detailed investigation, the Times of India reported.
Gupta reportedly accessed over 110 customer accounts and carried out a series of fraudulent transactions by misusing the bank’s internal ‘User FD’ system. She allegedly activated overdraft facilities on 40 accounts without customers’ consent and prematurely closed fixed deposits worth Rs 1.34 crore from 31 accounts.
Diverting OTPs and transaction alerts
According to Sub-Inspector Ibrahim of Udhyog Nagar police, Gupta even used the account of an elderly woman as a “pool account” to divert funds. In a bid to conceal the fraud, she altered mobile numbers linked to the affected accounts, replacing them with those of her relatives to divert transaction alerts and OTPs.
Police also revealed that by February 2023, over Rs 300 crore had circulated through a single account. In addition to misusing overdraft and FD features, Gupta disbursed a fraudulent personal loan of Rs 3.4 lakh and exploited debit cards, PINs and OTPs to carry out unauthorised online and ATM transactions.
Despite her extensive efforts to avoid detection, Gupta’s scheme unraveled when inconsistencies were discovered. The stolen funds were ultimately used to invest in the stock market, where she suffered heavy losses and failed to return the money.
“She manipulated multiple systems and bypassed several security measures, hoping to generate high returns. However, the plan backfired,” said an official.
An ICICI Bank spokesperson said, “The interest of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed an FIR with the police. We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled.”
Following her arrest, Gupta was initially placed under one-day police remand. She was later produced before a local court and has since been remanded to judicial custody. Authorities have launched further investigations to determine if others were involved and to trace any recoverable assets.