LAHORE: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of the Lahore police has reportedly busted a big racket of the criminals and bank employees who used to leak confidential details of the accounts the bank clients to a robbers’ gang.

The racket of the criminals had 10 suspected robbers and five bank employees, including the former manager of a bank.

The network was detected when its five armed members made forced entry into a house of a rich family in the Defence area a couple of weeks back and robbed it of cash, gold ornaments, diamonds, ATM cards, mobile phones and other valuables worth over Rs2.5m.

During the investigation launched by the CIA, it transpired that the robbers had targeted the family after the employees of the bank concerned leaked to them the details of accounts of its members.

Bank workers used to give confidential details to robbers to target their clients; 10 suspects arrested

A police official said that some members of the family were settled in Canada and they were having accounts in the bank from where their confidential information was leaked to the criminals. He said the bank employees had provided details of the account holders, names, mobile phone numbers and other particulars to the alleged robbers besides the heavy amount they had deposited with the bank.

About the modus operandi of the criminals, the official said, they traced the house of the account holders as per the leaked information, made a call and asked the family to get a ‘parcel’. As one of the family members came out of his house and reached the given address, the suspected armed men took him hostage, took him back to his house and robbed the whole family.

The police official added that after a successful robbery, the suspects further deprived the family of a hefty amount while uploading an app on the mobile phone numbers and mobile phones of the account holders they had taken away during the robbery.

As they were already having all relevant account details, including the name of mothers of the account holders besides other necessary information the bank required to initiate the process, the suspects got the ATM amount limit increased. Later, they withdrew the amount to the tune of Rs3.5m, the police official said, adding that the suspects were so well-versed in the online banking system that they completed the task within hours after uploading the app on the stolen mobile phones.

It is evident from the information gleaned from the victim family members that they had contacted the bank immediately after they were robbed and asked it to block all the accounts they were operating in the bank. However, it was too late to take preventive measures as the suspects had already withdrawn the amount from the ATMs, the police official said.

During interrogation, the police source said, the suspects told the police that they had deprived many account holders of various banks using online apps on the mobile phones and the information that bank officials used to provide them.

The most important information used to be the name of the mother of the account holders besides other required information they would get to operate the ATMs, they told the CIA police. The suspects also revealed that they used to deprive the account holders of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) with the connivance of the bank officials/employees.

Recently, the police official said, the same network had got the major amounts transferred from the account holders, including Rs3.2m and Rs1m.

As soon as the CIA detected and arrested the 10-member gang of the robbers, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) contacted the agency to get custody of the suspects. The arrested criminals included five robbers who were directly involved in the robbery while as many others who were a part of the gang.

The official said as the CIA had extended the scope of investigation and it would later take a decision to handover the suspects to the FIA as a lot of work was yet to be done on the high-profile case.

To a question, he said, the CIA teams were still trying to trace a former bank manager and other employees who used to help the criminals.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022