Kota’s big bank scam exposed: 41 customers, 110 FDs, Rs 4.58 crore gone

A major banking fraud has surfaced in Rajasthan’s Kota, where a relationship manager at ICICI Bank allegedly siphoned off Rs 4.58 crore from customer accounts over a two-year period, redirecting the money into the stock market. The accused, Sakshi Gupta, was arrested by local police during her sister’s wedding and has been sent to judicial custody, NDTV reported.

The scam came to light in February when a customer visited the bank to inquire about his fixed deposit (FD). Upon investigation, the bank discovered unauthorised withdrawals from multiple accounts and approached the police with a formal complaint on February 18.

Gupta, who was posted as a relationship manager, misused the bank’s 'User FD' facility to make illegal withdrawals between 2020 and 2023. NDTV cited the police as saying that she accessed 110 fixed deposit accounts belonging to 41 customers, changed the registered mobile numbers with those of her family members and channelled the money into the stock market.

“She linked the phone numbers of her family members to these accounts and withdrew more than Rs 4 crore,” said investigating officer Ibrahim Khan, quoted NDTV. “She even devised a system that she used to get the OTPs on her system so that the account holders don't get a whiff of the fraud,” he added.

Police reportedly said that Gupta incurred heavy losses in the stock market and failed to return the money to the accounts. No one in the bank had any inkling of the fraud until the customer flagged the discrepancy. Her actions went undetected for nearly two years.

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.”

One of the customers, Mahavir Prasad, was quoted by NDTV saying that he had come to the bank after hearing that Sakshi Gupta had allegedly duped people of Rs 4 crore, as he wanted to check whether his own money was safe. Wondering aloud, he said people couldn’t keep money at home, and now even banks no longer felt safe, asking, “What should we do?”