UCO Bank IMPS scam: CBI conducts raids in 67 locations
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday raided 67 locations in seven cities across Rajasthan and Maharashtra in connection with suspicious Immediate Payment System (IMPS) transactions worth Rs. 820 crore at UCO Bank. It registered a case against Avishek Srivastava and Supriya Mallick, support engineers of LCode Technologies, which maintains UCO Bank's mobile banking app. More than 8,53,049 IMPS transactions occurred in November last year, wrongfully transferring Rs. 820 crore to more than 41,000 UCO bank account holders.
Why does this story matter?
Between November 10 and 13, 2023, the government-owned UCO Bank experienced a technical issue affecting numerous IMPS transactions. This glitch resulted in transactions initiated by customers of other banks being credited to UCO Bank account holders without the actual transfer of funds. A case was filed in the aftermath based on a complaint from UCO Bank. Both Srivastava and Mallick are accused of altering the port numbers of IMPS transactions, resulting in fraudulent transfers.
Searches focused on recipients who withdrew money
A CBI spokesperson said Thursday's searches targeted individuals who received the money and withdrew it instead of returning it to UCO Bank. This is the second round of searches in this case; the first round happened in December 2023 at 13 locations involving private individuals and UCO Bank officials in Kolkata and Mangaluru. The agency at the time seized around 130 incriminating documents related to UCO Bank and IDFC that were seized, along with 43 digital devices for forensic analysis.
30 suspects were questioned in December
A CBI spokesperson said that during the December raids, "Thirty suspects were also found and examined on the spot." Detailing the case, they said that IMPS inward transactions initiated from around 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were wrongfully sent to the accounts of over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders. It is pertinent to note that IMPS is a payment system in India for the instant and 24x7 transfer of funds within the country.
