Chennai, Nov 11:
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Greater Chennai Police has registered a case and launched a major probe into a sophisticated cyber fraud in which Rs 22.1 crore was siphoned off from bank accounts belonging to the Tamil Nadu Rural Development (TNRD) Department.
The fraudulent transfers, executed during the third week of September, came to light after the department lodged an official complaint with the city police on November 3. Preliminary investigations revealed that the cybercriminals siphoned off Rs 14 crore from the Mandapam Panchayat Union in Ramanathapuram, Rs 5 crore from Dharapuram in Tirupur, and Rs 3.1 crore from the Nagapattinam Panchayat Union.
Investigators suspect that the perpetrators compromised the online portal managed by a private bank that handles local body fund disbursals, using stolen administrative credentials to divert state funds into unauthorized dummy accounts across northern states. Special cybercrime teams are tracing digital transaction logs and analyzing IP trails to determine whether the heist was assisted by department insiders or orchestrated by an interstate cyber fraud ring.