Chennai: In the Tamil Nadu government's Rs. 22.35 crore financial fraud case, while 7 people have been arrested, it has come to light that the fraudulent money was transferred to 24 bank accounts.
The health department grant fund of the Tamil Nadu government’s 15th Finance Commission has been allocated for improving primary healthcare infrastructure in rural areas. This fund was maintained in a separate bank account in the name of the Director of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department at the HDFC Bank branch in Nandanam, Chennai. Separate user names and passwords were provided to the respective Block Development Officers who had the necessary authorization to withdraw funds from this account and make payments to contractors.
In this situation, during the period from the 12th to the 30th of last month, unidentified persons transferred Rs. 22.35 crore from the bank account to various bank accounts. Regarding this, Ramprasad, Inspector of the Directorate of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, filed a complaint with the Chennai Police Commissioner. Based on that, the Central Crime Branch cybercrime police began an investigation.
It was found that this fraud took place through the website used to manage the bank’s so-called SNA single account. In particular, it was discovered that money was transferred to bank accounts linked to various email addresses through the website ‘Squareuplive.com/rdprd’.
It was also found that fraud had been carried out using user IDs in the names of the Nagai Keelaiyur, Ramanathapuram Mandapam, and Tiruppur Dharapuram block development offices. Accordingly, through a total of 46 transactions, Rs. 22 crore 30 lakh 4,879 was transferred to the bank accounts of various companies and individuals.
Money was transferred to the bank accounts of Samviyat Marketing, Krishna Krishna Store, Bharat Grain, and Nexvora Commerce Private Limited. Following this, Sellappandian from Chennai’s Ekkattuthangal, Thiruvallikeni Karumpur Annadurai, and Bengaluru’s Lokanathan, who had assisted them, were also arrested and jailed.
Furthermore, police are investigating Abdulrahman from Madurai, Jagadish, Ashraf Ali from Sivagangai, and Kannadasan, who are also connected to this incident. Seven mobile phones, 14 SIM cards, and a bank cheque book were seized from those arrested.

Abdul Rahman, Lokanathan, Annadurai
During the police investigation, it was found that the arrested individuals had taken commissions from a cyber fraud gang and allowed their bank accounts to be used for money transfers.
It was also discovered that through their bank accounts, transfers had been made to 24 different bank accounts.
Following this, the police have been intensively engaged in identifying the owners of the bank accounts to which the fraudulent money was transferred and arresting them. In addition, the Central Crime Branch police are investigating who acted as the brains behind the gang that stole crores of rupees from the Tamil Nadu government’s bank account in an ingenious manner, and who else may be connected to this fraud.
