Mumbai:
Officers of the cyber crime investigation cell of the Mumbai crime branch recently arrested Rahul Kanhaiyalal Shah, who runs a stock trading firm in Goregaon, for allegedly sending an email containing false information about the insolvency of a leading private bank to create fear among its investors and account holders.
However, the police suspect that he is not the real culprit and had forwarded the email without malicious intent, and had received it from an as yet unidentified email ID. The original sender has been traced to Chennai, but no arrest has been made so far.
According to the police, on June 9, the assistant general manager of a private bank had filed a complaint with the cyber crime investigation cell at DN Road stating that emails containing wrong information about the insolvency of the bank are being circulated and forwarded, spreading fear among investors and account holders.
"Investigations revealed that several persons were sent emails containing false information about the bank. We have interviewed several persons who had received and forwarded the mail in order to trace the original sender,"
The content of the email was, "Is [private bank] going to crash within a few days? I feel 100% sure that like the Satyam scam this private bank has frauded Rs3,000 crore in ADR in the US Market. A big US stock broking company has filed a Rs1 billion dollar (sic) suite against this bank and its US banking arm... alert all your friends holding this bank's stocks..."
"The original email was traced to the one belonging to Shah. He was arrested on Wednesday and was released on bail of Rs10,000 by the local court. He told us during interrogation that he had received the said email from an unknown email ID, and had unsuspectingly forwarded it to his friends and relatives," a police officer said.
During enquiry, the cyber police learnt that the email account was last opened in Chennai. The police have seized the hard disk of Shah's computer and have sent it for forensic analysis.
"We have also written to the Chennai police to give us more details about the email ID, but they have not responded yet. We feel that Shah had forwarded this mail without wrong intention.
Unless the real culprit is arrested, it will be difficult to ascertain the reason for which the emails were sent to malign the reputation of the bank," the officer said.
The cyber police have also filed a charge sheet in the case and have submitted it to the court.
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