Bengaluru: In a striking case of digital fraud, cybercrime police in Bengaluru arrested a Rajasthan man who faked court orders and government email IDs to unfreeze two ICICI bank accounts and divert Rs 1.32 crore into benami accounts. Two accomplices from New Delhi have also been arrested in connection with the crime.
The operation began unraveling after an ICICI bank branch manager filed a complaint on March 3. Investigations led to Sagar Lakkere, 23, a school dropout and photo studio worker from Sirohi, Rajasthan, who masterminded the entire scheme. His inspiration? His own betting app-linked bank account was frozen — prompting him to learn the legal defreezing process, which he then manipulated.
Lakkere created a fake Karnataka government ID via the KSWAN portal and between Sept 2024 and Feb 2025, sent 18 fake court orders to ICICI’s nodal email ID. He followed these up with calls impersonating officials to press for unfreezing.
The stolen funds were transferred to an Axis Bank account in Delhi opened under the name of Abhimanyu Pandey, 24, a parking attendant. The account was created with help from Axis Bank executive Neeraj Singh, 30. Pandey claimed he was told to open the account by an acquaintance, unknowingly enabling the fraud.
So far, police have found that Rs 38 lakh was dispersed to various accounts and Rs 31 lakh was splurged by the accused. The remaining Rs 63 lakh has been frozen.
Read Also: