Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Cybercrime Police have arrested a 45-year-old Chartered Accountant (CA) Ashish Saxena from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly deceiving 11 individuals by issuing fake e-bank guarantees totalling Rs.168 crore.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda stated that a complaint was filed against Saxena for providing counterfeit e-bank guarantees to contractors.

Saxena targeted victims, including civil contractors and allegedly offered them counterfeit e-bank guarantees in exchange for a commission of Rs. 5 crore. e-bank guarantees involve an electronic issuance process, reducing the time required for issuance from several working days to mere minutes.

After receiving the fake e-bank guarantees, the victims uploaded them under the names of ICICI Bank and South Indian Bank on National e-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), using login credentials provided by Saxena. Following a complaint filed by a NeSL official on Feb. 7, the Police interrogated the victims, eventually uncovering Saxena’s involvement. The Police tracked Saxena to Kuwait and immigration authorities detained him on Mar. 13 at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi upon his arrival from Kuwait. Police seized two laptops, six mobile phones, a pen drive and 10 cheque books. He has an accomplice  who is at large.