MUMBAI/NAGPUR: Maharashtra government has announced a special investigation team (SIT) to probe an alleged online money laundering or digital hawala racket that has seen transactions worth Rs 16000 crore so far, some of which showing money transfers into the bank accounts abroad. These transfers by a payment gateway and payout platform based out of Wagle Estate in Thane appears to have been done after hacking an account of a private financial management firm, one of their clients, state government said on Friday.
“The payment gateway and payout platform hacked a private company account and made online transactions worth Rs 16180 crore through as big as 241 different bank accounts and transferred amounts into the foreign-based financial institutions. As of now the platform is reported to have deceived the company of Rs 25 crore,” confirmed DCM and home minister Devendra Fadnavis in the state legislative assembly which is in session at Nagpur.
“Prima facie though the amount involved appears to be Rs 25 crores, the total transactions are as huge as over Rs 16000 crore involving scores of accounts. Though there are no further cases of swindling the amounts so far, there is a possibility of this gateway operating as a digital hawala platform. Their share-agreements for the accounts used are notarized though, are not authentic. Hence, we want an SIT probe to know whether KYC norms have been flawed and whether there are any ghost accounts being operated,” said Fadnavis while replying to a query during question hour.
The preliminary investigations by the cyber police and the Naupada police station have revealed that the accused have opened fake institutional accounts in the name of different people by forging notarized share-agreements in their names. The accused gateway has been found to have made financial transactions using sensitive data, credit card numbers, consumer names and addresses that were stolen after hacking the account of the firm. According to Fadnavis in majority such cases the operators have been found depositing money in the accounts abroad and hence to find out every trail of the transactions a forensic audit will be conducted.
“The SIT will be given a three months’ time to investigate the case and file chargesheet. if needed period will be extended for additional chargesheets. The state will take the help of central investigating agencies as well as financial institutions to probe the case. Since several such cases have occurred in other states, we expect a major announcement in this regard from the Centre itself,” said Fadnavis. Legislators Sunil Prabhu, Ravindra Waikar, Ashish Shelar and Captain R Selvan had raised the issue during question hour.
Fdanavis said the state was simultaneously expanding the capacity of its cyber sell under the Maha Cyber project. “This move will facilitate quick response to the online money laundering cases by stopping the transactions only if they are reported by the victims to the cyber police within three hours of deductions. The expansion is in the pre-bid stage and around 17 big companies have showed interest in setting up such a facility to curb hawala rackets” he said on the floor of the house.
To a query Fadnavis said state will soon carry out aadhar verification drive on its own while pointing out that the central government had already begun a mass verification of Aadhar cards across the country as it was doubted that around 8 to 10% of Aadhar identities have been faked. According to Fadnavis a new cybercrime lab and police station being set up in Mumbai would be commissioned soon.
“The payment gateway and payout platform hacked a private company account and made online transactions worth Rs 16180 crore through as big as 241 different bank accounts and transferred amounts into the foreign-based financial institutions. As of now the platform is reported to have deceived the company of Rs 25 crore,” confirmed DCM and home minister Devendra Fadnavis in the state legislative assembly which is in session at Nagpur.
“Prima facie though the amount involved appears to be Rs 25 crores, the total transactions are as huge as over Rs 16000 crore involving scores of accounts. Though there are no further cases of swindling the amounts so far, there is a possibility of this gateway operating as a digital hawala platform. Their share-agreements for the accounts used are notarized though, are not authentic. Hence, we want an SIT probe to know whether KYC norms have been flawed and whether there are any ghost accounts being operated,” said Fadnavis while replying to a query during question hour.
The preliminary investigations by the cyber police and the Naupada police station have revealed that the accused have opened fake institutional accounts in the name of different people by forging notarized share-agreements in their names. The accused gateway has been found to have made financial transactions using sensitive data, credit card numbers, consumer names and addresses that were stolen after hacking the account of the firm. According to Fadnavis in majority such cases the operators have been found depositing money in the accounts abroad and hence to find out every trail of the transactions a forensic audit will be conducted.
“The SIT will be given a three months’ time to investigate the case and file chargesheet. if needed period will be extended for additional chargesheets. The state will take the help of central investigating agencies as well as financial institutions to probe the case. Since several such cases have occurred in other states, we expect a major announcement in this regard from the Centre itself,” said Fadnavis. Legislators Sunil Prabhu, Ravindra Waikar, Ashish Shelar and Captain R Selvan had raised the issue during question hour.
Fdanavis said the state was simultaneously expanding the capacity of its cyber sell under the Maha Cyber project. “This move will facilitate quick response to the online money laundering cases by stopping the transactions only if they are reported by the victims to the cyber police within three hours of deductions. The expansion is in the pre-bid stage and around 17 big companies have showed interest in setting up such a facility to curb hawala rackets” he said on the floor of the house.
To a query Fadnavis said state will soon carry out aadhar verification drive on its own while pointing out that the central government had already begun a mass verification of Aadhar cards across the country as it was doubted that around 8 to 10% of Aadhar identities have been faked. According to Fadnavis a new cybercrime lab and police station being set up in Mumbai would be commissioned soon.