A 32-year-old man has been arrested in what could be one of the - TopicsExpress

A 32-year-old man has been arrested in what could be one of the biggest online credit card usage frauds uncovered by the Delhi police. Mumbai resident Raju Tevar was arrested last week after Delhi resident Abhay Srivastava filed a complaint at the Connaught Place police station in April, saying his ICICI Bank account had been compromised and Rs44,911 debited through his credit card. The police said this amount is part of the Rs2 crore that Tevar allegedly removed from the bank accounts of 4,500 ICICI Bank credit card customers over the past 18 months. Investigating officers have found data of around 30,000 ICICI credit card customers in Tevar’s laptop, leading them to believe that the magnitude of the fraud could be much bigger. ICICI bank officials were unavailable for a comment. But investigating officers who contacted the bank said ICICI officials too have received complaints and have instituted an internal probe. “They are baffled,” said an investigating officer. “They are just wondering how this happened for more than a year. We feel that a bank employee must be involved.” Tevar, who was brought to Delhi on a transit remand, was produced in court on Saturday and has been sent to police custody till July 22. A class 7 dropout, Tevar survived by doing odd jobs — paying electricity, phone and other utility bills for shopkeepers and households at a nominal charge. “He made payments to Maharashtra district electricity board company and PayTM mobile company using stolen data of ICICI bank credit cards, and pocket the hard cash given by the customers,” said SBS Tyagi, DCP (New Delhi). Tevar stole most of the credit card information from an acquaintance, Zakir, whom he met through a common friend. Zakir, who is absconding, seems to have got this data with help of an accomplice. “Either Zakir’s girlfriend or some close friend works in ICICI Bank, who has helped him in stealing data from the bank’s database,” said an officer. “Tevar learned to use a laptop in Zakir’s company and then learnt that Zakir is involved in internet banking fraud,” said Tyagi. Tevar stole ICICI Bank customers’ data from Zakir’s laptop and started cheating customers on his own. “After three months of investigations, we traced Tevar to Mumbai,” said an officer.