HYDERABAD: The two employees of a cash management company who diverted Rs.1.4 crore from State Bank of India (SB) ATMs in the city also siphoned-off another Rs.84 lakh from SBI, taking the total amount stolen to nearly Rs.2.3 crore, said officials from the Central Crime Station (CCS). It is suspected that they committed the fraud at the behest of their acquaintances who wanted new currency.
The two employees who work for Logicash Solutions Pvt Ltd, which takes care of 80 ATMs in Hyderabad, committed the fraud between November 12 to December 7. This was found after a surprise audit was conducted by Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd (TCPSL), which has an agreement with SBI to replenish ATMs and has sub-contracted the work to Logicash.
After collecting the money from the SBI’s main branch in Koti, the employees would fill the ATMs with lesser amounts than what they were supposed to, said an official. “They just have to enter the amount being filled in the machine and then put the money into the cassettes. There is no way to physically account for the money being put in,” he explained.
Of the 80 ATMs under Logicash, the fraud was committed in 68 of the ATMs in the three routes of Kukatpally, Uppal and the Old City areas. The other amount of Rs.84 lakh was siphoned-off after taking it from the bank in whole, with the two employees diverting it and not even showing that it was replenished in any ATMs.
“The Rs.84 lakhs diversion was found out by SBI, which keeps a note of how much cash is given to cash management companies. The Rs.1.4 crore fraud was done after the TCPSL’s audit, after which Logicash also commenced its own audit and realised how much was missing,” stated the official.
After detection of the fraud, so far The company has managed to recover Rs.50 lakh, out of which about Rs.30 lakh were in the old notes.demonetised currency of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes. “They have exchanged the money. So at the this point, the company does not mind whatever denomination the cash is recovered in, but is hoping that it can get back most of it,” informed the official.
According to a source from Logicash, the company has been getting between Rs.50 lakh to Rs.1 crore post demonetisation to replenish ATMs at a time, unlike before when it would get about Rs.4 crore to Rs.5 crore.
