The Ernakulam Additional Sessions Court here on Wednesday dismissed the bail and anticipatory bail petitions of two men who along with four others allegedly gained Rs.73 lakh illegally by cashing in on a technical bug in the internet banking system of the State Bank of India. The court dismissed the bail petition of Aby Chakkiath, 27, of Athani, Kakkanad, and the anticipatory bail plea of Shyam T.R., 25, of Tripunithura.
The duo, along with Ajith Urmese, Gismon Thomas, Sharath Chandran, and Jithin Chandran, allegedly cheated the bank by exploiting the technical flaw in which the servers of the bank are shut down at midnight for update. The accused allegedly knew that the servers would be shut at midnight and made several online transactions at the time to cheat the bank. Police said the accused transferred several lakhs of rupees from their SBI accounts to other accounts while the servers were shut. Though there was no money in the source account, the amount was credited in the receiving account while the servers were down. The local branches of the bank could not immediately trace the transactions as the servers are managed in Mumbai. The accused allegedly made several transactions between February and October 2013, making about Rs.73 lakh in the process. The case was registered after the bank detected the fraud in November this year.
According to the police, Aby made 23 transactions between February 6, 2013, and March 12, 2013, making Rs.4.12 lakh. He allegedly made 96 transactions from another account later, making Rs.13.83 lakh. Shyam allegedly made 30 transactions, withdrawing Rs.10.35 lakh from the bank illegally.
All the accused except Shyam are under arrest. The court dismissed Aby’s bail plea and Shyam’s anticipatory bail plea saying that the case was still being investigated. Public Prosecutor P.K. Sajeevan appeared for the prosecution. Police officials said the sixth accused would be arrested soon.
