Daijiworld Media Network – Kota

Kota, Jun 6: In a major breach of trust, a woman bank officer in Rajasthan’s Kota has been arrested for allegedly defrauding over 40 customers of ICICI Bank and siphoning off more than Rs 4.5 cr to invest in the stock market.

Sakshi Gupta, who served as the relationship manager at the bank, reportedly manipulated fixed deposit accounts between 2020 and 2023. Using the 'User FD' portal, she withdrew Rs 4.58 cr from 110 FDs belonging to 41 customers, according to the police investigation.

The scam came to light after a customer approached the bank to inquire about his FD, following which the bank conducted an internal probe and lodged an FIR with the police on February 18.

Investigating officer Ibrahim Khan said, “She changed the mobile numbers linked to customer accounts and replaced them with those of her family members. She had even set up a system to receive OTPs on her own device to carry out the fraud undetected.”

Gupta was arrested late last night during her sister’s wedding and has been sent to judicial custody. Police said she had invested the embezzled funds in the stock market in the hope of generating quick returns, but suffered heavy losses and was unable to repay the amount.

ICICI Bank issued a statement confirming the fraud and said the employee was suspended immediately. “We have a zero-tolerance policy against fraud. Upon discovering the activity, we filed an FIR and have already settled the genuine claims of affected customers,” said a bank spokesperson.

The incident has left many customers shaken. “Where should we keep our money now?” questioned Mahavir Prasad, a customer who visited the bank after hearing about the fraud. “We can’t keep it at home, and now not even in a bank?”