Ahmedabad: The Cyber Centre of Excellence in Gandhinagar arrested three more persons in connection with the hacking of the Bhavnagar District Cooperative Bank’s core banking system, taking the total number of accused held in the case to 10.Police said that the accused were part of a network that arranged bank accounts for routing funds generated through the cyberfraud. The hacking case involves the alleged diversion of Rs 7.3 crore after the bank’s computer systems and database were compromised.Police said the accused illegally accessed the bank’s servers, database and core banking system, manipulated electronic records and created fictitious account balances in four dormant accounts. The artificially generated funds were then transferred to 135 bank accounts to disperse the money and provide illegal financial gains to members of the syndicate, causing losses to the bank.The three arrested accused have been identified as Anil Agravat (36) of Surat, Bhumil Patel (32) of Vasad in Anand district, and Vikas Chaudhary (28) of Chomu in Rajasthan.According to investigators, Agravat allegedly rented out his bank account for use in the fraud. Police said Patel activated internet banking for the account, created the username and password, and passed the credentials to other members of the network. Chaudhary allegedly accompanied Patel to Bhavnagar to open the account. After initial documentation issues, the account was opened using fresh documents, police said.Police said Chaudhary was in contact with members of the hacking syndicate, and his role is being examined further.The fraud exploited a vulnerability in the bank’s core banking software. Investigators claimed that the same software weakness had been exploited in cyberattacks targeting 14 to 15 banks across India.The probe found that the accused altered the database of four old bank accounts by replacing the registered mobile numbers with their own. They then generated virtual balances of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore in each account before transferring a total of Rs 7.3 crore to multiple accounts.Officials said the syndicate lured account holders with financial incentives to rent out their bank accounts, which were then used to layer and move proceeds of cyberfraud.
