Delhi Police’s Central District has busted a syndicate involved in impersonation of bank account holders and arrested two accused for defrauding bank officials of Rs 22.56 lakh through fraudulent Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) instructions, officials said on Thursday.

Assets worth approximately Rs 2.50 crore, including gold jewellery, 101 gold coins, cash and a SUV, have been seized in the present and connected cases.

One of the arrested accused was also found to be a proclaimed offender who had been absconding for more than seven years in a forged currency case, police said.

The case originated from a complaint filed by the Branch Manager of Bank of India, Rajendra Place, New Delhi. On August 5, a person impersonating Deepak Malhotra, a director associated with multiple corporate entities maintaining accounts at the branch, contacted bank officials.

According to the police, the caller initially discussed creating a Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) worth Rs 1 crore to gain the officials’ confidence.

He later contacted them, claiming that the company needed to make a payment but had exhausted its cheque book. He requested that the transaction be processed through email.

The accused sent a forged payment request using an email ID closely resembling the company’s registered address. The email, bearing a forged company letterhead, instructed the bank to transfer Rs 22,56,922 to another account.

When bank officials sought mandatory indemnity documents, the caller pressured them by claiming that similar transactions had been processed earlier and stressing the urgency of the payment. The bank subsequently processed the fraudulent RTGS transfer.

An e-FIR was registered at the Cyber Police Station of Central District under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

During the investigation, police traced the defrauded amount to a mule bank account maintained with Bandhan Bank in West Bengal. Technical analysis of telecom records, digital evidence and communication details helped investigators identify the suspects.

A police team led by Sub-Inspector Kamlesh Kumar arrested the accused, identified as Vinay Kumar Yadav, 36, a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and Anil Kumar Sehgal, 65, a resident of Noida.

The investigation revealed that the accused used forged company letterheads, deceptive email IDs, social engineering and mule accounts to target corporate bank transactions. The money was subsequently diverted into other assets, including gold purchased from a jeweller in West Bengal.

Police said both accused had previous criminal involvement in financial fraud cases across several locations, including Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Ayodhya and Faridabad. They allegedly became acquainted while in jail and had previously been associated with cheque-related frauds involving so-called magic pens.

The arrests have also helped police work out six similar cases registered in Gurugram, Palwal and Delhi, involving fraud amounts ranging from Rs 16.65 lakh to Rs 2.98 crore, along with an attempted fraud of Rs 88 lakh.

A man accused of breaking into a bungalow in Vapi’s GIDC area and stealing gold and silver jewellery and cash worth more than Rs 32 lakh was arrested in Mumbai’s Dadar area, with the Valsad Local Crime Branch of Gujarat recovering property worth Rs 18.28 lakh, police said on Wednesday.

The burglary took place on the night of October 24 at Bungalow No. A/4 in Vraj Co-operative Housing Society, Vraj Row House, on Chharwada Road in Vapi.

According to the police, the accused cut through an iron window grille and broke a wooden window to enter a first-floor bedroom before taking jewellery weighing approximately 142.61 grams, around 900 grams of silver and Rs 12 lakh in cash from a wooden cupboard. The total value of the stolen property was estimated at Rs 32,62,482.

Vapi GIDC police registered a case under Sections 305(a) and 331(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

The arrested accused has been identified as Atish alias Dancer, 38, a labourer residing in Virar East in Mumbai’s neighbouring Palghar district.

Police said teams from the Valsad Local Crime Branch, its burglary squad and Vapi GIDC police station examined footage from more than 200 CCTV cameras along the route from the crime scene to Mumbai.

Investigators also examined records of people involved in similar offences and used technical analysis to identify the suspect.

Acting on a tip-off received by a team led by Local Crime Branch sub-inspector J G Parmar, the police traced and arrested the accused in Dadar. He and the recovered property were subsequently handed over to Vapi GIDC police for further investigation.

During questioning, the accused allegedly told investigators that he had travelled by train from Virar to Vapi around two days before the burglary.

He allegedly climbed onto the sheet-metal roof of a bungalow, approached a first-floor window, cut its iron grille with a hacksaw blade and broke the wooden window using a screwdriver before entering the house and stealing the valuables.

According to the police, the accused’s modus operandi involved surveying a target area two or three days before a burglary.

After familiarising himself with the surroundings, he would allegedly approach the rear of a locked house, cut through a window grille and enter the premises.

The recovered property includes three gold necklaces with earrings weighing 35.95 grams, valued at Rs 4.75 lakh; two gold bangles weighing 32.32 grams, valued at Rs 4.26 lakh; a gold chain worth Rs 1.03 lakh; diamond-studded gold earrings valued at Rs 78,000; and other gold ornaments and coins.

Police also recovered a five-gram silver coin, Rs 5,48,800 in cash, two mobile phones valued at Rs 10,000, and a screwdriver and hacksaw blade allegedly used in the burglary.

The total value of the recovered items was put at Rs 18,28,780. Police list 69 cases against the accused in Gujarat and Maharashtra, including cases registered in Umargam and several Mumbai police station jurisdictions.

The listed cases date from 2005 to 2026 and include allegations of theft, housebreaking, robbery and cheating, among other offences. Further investigation is being carried out by Vapi GIDC police.

The Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS) of Delhi Police’s Shahdara district arrested a 23-year-old habitual auto-lifter allegedly involved in multiple two-wheeler theft and snatching cases, officials said on Wednesday.

The police also recovered four stolen vehicles and solved four motor vehicle theft cases across Shahdara, Central and South districts.

The accused, identified as Ritesh alias Piyush Tinku, a resident of Paharganj in Delhi, was apprehended on October 24 near a petrol pump on the Dilshad Garden-Ghaziabad DLF carriageway, within the jurisdiction of Vivek Vihar police station, following specific intelligence, according to the police.

At the time of his arrest, the accused was allegedly found in possession of a black motorcycle. Police verification revealed that the motorcycle had been reported stolen in an e-FIR registered at Patel Nagar police station in Central District on September 18.

The operation was launched after police received reports of recent two-wheeler thefts in Shahdara district. A dedicated AATS team was formed to identify and apprehend those involved in the offences. The team analysed CCTV footage, conducted field enquiries, developed local intelligence and deployed personnel in plain clothes to track suspected auto-lifters.

During interrogation, Ritesh allegedly disclosed his involvement in other vehicle theft cases.

Acting on the information provided by him, the police recovered three more stolen two-wheelers, taking the total recovery to four.

The recovered vehicles include a white scooter, a black motorcycle and a blue scooter, in addition to another motorcycle. Verification linked the vehicles to theft cases registered at Hauz Khas police station in South District and Vivek Vihar and Anand Vihar police stations in Shahdara District.

With these recoveries, the police said they had worked out four motor vehicle theft cases spanning three districts. All four cases were registered under Section 305(B) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the police, Ritesh is a Class IX dropout who lives with his family. Available records indicate that he has been apprehended by different police stations in Delhi since 2024 in connection with motor vehicle theft and snatching cases.

The accused was recently released from judicial custody on October 12 and allegedly resumed stealing two-wheelers thereafter, police said.

Police records show that he has previously been involved in 17 cases related to snatching and motor vehicle theft.

Further legal proceedings are underway.