Seven held for bid to hack Rs 200 crore account of corporate firm

Representative Image

Seven people have been arrested from Maharashtra's Palghar district for allegedly trying to hack a leading corporate firm's bank account and transfer Rs 200 crore from it into another account, police said on March 5.

Acting on a tip-off, the police nabbed the accused from near a mall in Nallasopara area on March 3 evening while they were planning to hack the account at the IndusInd Bank's branch at Chembur in neighbouring Mumbai, assistant police inspector S B Kamble said.

One of the accused, Taslim Ansari (34), was working with the bank and had provided data to the other accused, the official said.

Their plan was to allegedly transfer Rs 200 crore from the corporate firm's account to another account in Kolkata. A person from Kolkata was then supposed to transfer the money to the accused through 'hawala', he said.

The accused also took help from some IT experts while planning the hacking bid, the official said.

The police seized an iPad, six mobile phones, a bank statement and a blank cheque from the accused, he said.

Besides Ansari, the other arrested persons have been identified as Naseem Siddiqui (35) (from Delhi), Gunjiv Baraiia (56), Saroj Choudhari (25), Satish Gupta (32), Anant Gosh (34) and Anand Nalawade (38).

"This is a mega racket," Kamble said, adding that they were searching for a person from Nashik who is also wanted in connection with the case.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempting to commit offence), a police spokesperson said.