Latest news with #JeevikaFoundation
News18
02-07-2025
- Business
- News18
Rs 3.72 Crore Deposited, Rs 3.33 Crore Withdrawn The Same Day: Delhi Ghost Flat Mystery
Last Updated: The bank said 1,960 transactions took place on August 8, 2024. When the balance fell to Rs 38 lakh, it finally froze debits — but not before Rs 3.33 crore had vanished A seemingly abandoned flat in Delhi's Trilokpuri, once marked by a mysterious blue board, has emerged as the centrepiece of a major cyber fraud investigation that has left police and bank officials scrambling for answers. The flat was linked to a bogus account under the name 'Jeevika Foundation', which saw an unexplained deposit of Rs 3.72 crore in a single day—most of which vanished within hours through nearly 2,000 transactions. According to The Indian Express, the account was opened in 2023 at HDFC's Karol Bagh branch with a deposit of just Rs 500. Investigators found the balance stood at Rs 556 before the sudden multi-crore deposit on August 8, 2024. Shockingly, Rs 3.33 crore was withdrawn the same day—without triggering any red flags. The bank claims the KYC process was duly completed during the account opening, yet the sudden influx of such a large amount remains unexplained. The fraudulent activity extended to a staggering 1960 transactions in one day on August 8, 2024. According to the report, retired IAF officer Biren Yadav, aged 78, fell prey to the cyber criminals on that day and was apparently kept under 'digital arrest'. They initially coerced him into depositing Rs 42.5 lakh, then further extorted Rs 1.59 crore, distributing the funds into various 'mule accounts' across four banks. The 'Jeevika Foundation' appears to be non-existent, with investigations now spanning six states to trace the mule accounts linked to 'Jeevika'. These accounts have connections with multiple fraud cases nationwide, including cities like Gurugram, Hyderabad, Manipal, Chennai, and Kolkata. The police said that only one Facebook page mentioned a person named Dr. Amarendra Jha, who initially claimed to have an office in Trilokpuri but later denied it. The search continues for more such linked accounts. HDFC bank officials confirmed police inquiries from two states but withheld further details citing ongoing court proceedings. The investigation revealed that when the account balance dwindled to Rs 38 lakh, the bank finally froze debits. First Published: July 02, 2025, 11:20 IST
Indian Express
30-06-2025
- Indian Express
Opening balance barely Rs 500; Rs 3.72 crore in, Rs 3.33 crore out, all in a day — no one noticed
A blue signboard saying 'Jeevika Foundation' hung outside the flat till about a year ago, say neighbors near the A Block parking lot of the resettlement colony in East Delhi's Trilokpuri. No one knows who put the board up, or who removed it — the flat has been unoccupied for long, they say. What they also don't know is that this faceless outfit with the missing signboard stands today as a symbol of how leading banks and their officials who are meant to track money flows dropped the ball even as cyber scamsters passed crores of stolen money right under their noses through ghost accounts opened by fictitious outfits, an investigation by The Indian Express has found. Officials at HDFC Bank's Karol Bagh branch in Delhi, where 'Jeevika Foundation' opened an account in October 2023, claimed they followed due process, including KYC norms, at the time. But there were no answers to questions on how large sums of money were subsequently transferred through this account without red flags being raised — until the police came knocking. Consider the numbers that came up in Jeevika's bank statement on just one scam day: * On August 8, 2024, there were 1,960 transactions in the account with Rs 3.72 crore credited and Rs 3.33 crore debited. The opening balance for that day: Rs 556. Police records show this was the day when a 78-year-old retired IAF officer, Biren Yadav, was ensnared in a digital arrest scam and forced to transfer Rs 42.5 lakh via RTGS to the account. In all, records show, the scamsters coerced Yadav into transferring a total of Rs 1.59 crore to suspected 'mule accounts' in four banks. Today, the Jeevika 'mule account' is at the heart of at least six different state police probes into cases of digital arrest and cyber fraud with a long list of pending claims from victims: Gurugram (Rs 38.3 lakh), Hyderabad (Rs 27.7 lakh), Manipal (Rs 21.7 lakh), Chennai (Rs 39 lakh) and Kolkata (Rs 14 lakh). There could be many more. Says Ranbir Singh, the previous occupant of the Trilokpuri flat who now has an office in the flat one floor above: 'First, officials from one bank arrived. Then, a team of Srinagar police came and later, Delhi police. I told them what I am telling you: I have no information about Jeevika.' There are no Registrar of Companies (RoC) records available for the outfit but there is a Facebook account under its name. It lists 'Dr Amarendra Jha' as a key functionary. When contacted by The Indian Express over a phone number listed in the Facebook account, a man who identified himself as 'Dr Jha' claimed that 'Jeevika Foundation' had opened an office in Trilokpuri but was not registered as an NGO and did not open a bank account 'due to time constraints'. When contacted by this newspaper again for more details, he denied any link with the Trilokpuri address. Later, he stopped responding to calls and messages. Officials at HDFC's Karol Bagh branch said police teams from two states had contacted them about the account. They did not provide more details, saying the matter was 'sub judice'. However, The Indian Express has learnt that the authorised signatory was present during contact-point verification and that a 'debit freeze' was imposed by the bank when suspicious withdrawals were noticed — but this was done only when about Rs 38 lakh was left in the account. The Gurugram trail Another scam, where a top advertising executive in Gurugram was forced by digital arrest operators to transfer Rs 5.85 crore in just two days from her HDFC Bank account to the ICICI Bank account of an unemployed 26-year-old man in Jhajjar, is a case in point. The Indian Express reached two HDFC Bank branches in Gurugram — Regent Plaza and City Court — that were used by the victim to transfer the money through RTGS in multiple tranches. 'The customer visited the branch personally and did the RTGS payments. There was little we could do to stop it,' said an official at the Regent Plaza branch. 'We had asked her the reason for withdrawing such hefty sums but she responded curtly about a medical emergency. We did not ask any further questions,' said an official at the City Court branch. The Indian Express also visited the ICICI Bank branch in Jhajjar where the money was deposited in the account of a man identified as Piyush, an unemployed youth from Subana village — and a 'mule' in the chain used by the scammers. 'Yes, the receipt of Rs 5.85 crore is an astounding sum for a student residing in a small Haryana village,' said an official at the branch. 'But there was no pop-up alert at our end, maybe because Piyush had changed his banking to online mode and could do everything remotely. There was no trigger for us to be alerted. After this case, we received instructions from Delhi and enhanced our due diligence procedures,' the official said. Asked to elaborate on this 'enhancement', the official declined to give specifics. Passing the buck The blame game continued down the scam chain. The management of Sreenivasa Padmavathi Bank in Hyderabad, where 11 mule accounts served as pit stops in the Gurugram scam trail, pointed fingers at Piyush's ICICI Bank branch in Jhajjar from where the money was transferred. 'The question to be asked is why did ICICI Bank not get alerted when an account, which had a few thousand rupees, got transfers totaling Rs 5.85 crore which was then immediately withdrawn?'' asked P Srinivas Kumar, the bank's chairman who is also a lawyer. 'On hearing about the Gurugram police probe, we froze all the 11 suspect accounts and terminated the services of the director who had opened many of these accounts,' he said. The director in question, Venkateswaralu Samudrala, has been arrested by the Gurugram police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) tracking the advertising executive's case. And, according to the top officer handling the case, the bank's chairman may also face questions from the SIT. Meanwhile, Gurugram police was informed by the Union Home Ministry's cyber unit that 181 other complaints have also been registered by them for these 11 mule accounts. Responding to a questionnaire from The Indian Express on the responsibilities of institutions in cases of digital arrest, HDFC Bank said it has been raising awareness through focused campaigns, such as Vigil Aunty (a fictional anti-fraud influencer) and mailers, and employees have been sensitised on raising an alarm in case of suspicious behaviour by customers while transferring funds. 'There have been multiple cases across India, where the alertness of bank staff has helped save customers from falling prey to fraudsters using this modus operandi. While the entire banking ecosystem and law enforcement agencies are taking steps to create awareness, there are instances where customers feel offended when bank employees enquire about the reasons for transfer of funds that seem of unusual amount(s). Non-engagement by the customer in such an instance is one challenge that banks face,' the bank said. In response to questions on the Jeevika account, HDFC Bank said, 'The account in question was opened after following all requisite processes and conducting a thorough due diligence. Since the matter is sub judice we cannot share further details. HDFC Bank remains committed to providing the highest level of customer service and is fully cooperating with the law enforcement agencies in this case.' ICICI Bank said it has implemented 'several advisories' issued by the RBI. 'We have put in place advanced transaction monitoring systems that generate internal alerts for suspicious activities in accounts. To prevent misuse, the bank swiftly freezes such accounts and reports them to the authorities. We also collaborate closely with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). By leveraging the suspect registry — compiled using data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) — we have made significant strides in curbing mule accounts,' the bank said. It added that it regularly communicates 'with customers through emails, SMSs and social media campaigns, educating them about various fraud types and providing guidance on preventive measures'. With the speed of technology and the complexity layers of transfers involved, 'preventive measures,' could hold the key. More so, when based on the evidence so far, victims of digital arrest have little hope — or chance — to recover what they have lost. Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India's most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ's Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More
