HYDERABAD: The Cybercrime Police of Hyderabad on Thursday arrested a 29-year-old car driver for siphoning off Rs 63 lakh from the account of a retired IAS officer, by stealing his internet banking credentials. The police seized Rs 7.15 lakh in cash and two cars from the possession of the accused.
According to police, the retired IAS officer and his wife owns a joint account at the SBI. When the couple collected their bank statement in April, they noticed that many suspicious transactions have taken place and large amounts of cash had been withdrawn from the account.
During the probe, the police identified the accused as P Venkat Ramana (29), the victim’s driver. The accused, along with his wife, stayed in the servant room at the complainant’s house.
Both the complainant and his wife are very old and partially blind. The accused joined as a servant-cum-driver at the couple’s house in 2012, and used to accompany the retired IAS officer to the bank often.
“While working as a driver, the accused had purchased three cars by obtaining loans with huge interest rates. However, he subsequently lost all three of them due to various reasons. He then decided to steal money from his employer,” the police said. After having won the couple’s confidence, the accused obtained the couple’s internet banking credentials. With the help of a woman in the money-transfer business, he withdrew Rs 63,00,000 from their account.