The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday said it has conducted further search operations at 67 locations in seven cities of Rajasthan and Maharashtra in connection with a case related to suspicious IMPS (immediate payment service) transactions amounting to approximately ₹820 crore across multiple UCO Bank accounts.
The agency had registered a case on November 21, 2023, on a complaint received from UCO Bank.
In the complaint, it was alleged that between November 10 and November 13, 2023, IMPS inward transactions initiated from around 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were wrongfully credited in the accounts of over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders.
This resulted in ₹820 crore being credited to UCO Bank accounts without actual debiting from the originating banks.
The agency carried out extensive search operations on Wednesday in Rajasthan — at Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jalore, Nagaur, Barmer, Phalodi, and at Pune in Maharashtra.
During the searches, approximately 130 incriminating documents related to UCO Bank and IDFC, as well as 43 digital devices (including 40 mobile phones, 2 hard disks, and 1 internet dongle) were seized for forensic analysis, said the CBI.
“Numerous account holders have exploited this situation, making wrongful gains by withdrawing funds through various banking channels,” said the CBI in a statement.
Earlier in December 2023, the CBI conducted searches at 13 locations involving private individuals and UCO Bank officials in Kolkata and Mangalore.
The investigation agency also said that “30 suspects were also found and examined on the spot”.
To ensure the smooth conduct of the search operations, a total of 120 Rajasthan Police personnel, including armed forces, were deployed.
Up to 210 personnel comprising 40 teams, including 130 CBI officials, and 80 independent witnesses from various departments were involved in the operation.
On November 15 last year, UCO Bank said that it had faced some technical issues due to which some accounts received erroneous credits. “It is clarified that the transactions observed by bank were due to internal technical issue as a result of which account holders of our bank have received some erroneous via IMPS. We wish to clarify that there was no issue with the IMPS platform,” the bank stated.
