Kathmandu, Sept 25: Only few days have passed since a huge hack of bank software in the country, similar crime occurred recently. A foreign national hacked the software of Agriculture Development Bank and took away huge amount by mobilizing some Nepalis, said Chief of Metropolitan Crime Control Division, SSP Sahakul Bahadur Thapa.
Twelve persons involved in swiping money from the bank were arrested and investigation continued. However, another bank heist was thwarted with the information provided by an employee at a remit company. "The hacker of bank software had planned to take away Rs 5 billion. So far, they swiped Rs 7 million, out of which, Rs 6 million has been confiscated. However, Rs 1 million was already taken to India via hundi, illegal way," SSP Thapa told the National News Agency (RSS).
The mastermind of the bank heist is a foreign national Peter also known as 'Kale.' He had been stealing money from Nepali banks by hacking their software from Mumbai, India, for long.
A special team of the Crime Control Division arrested 12 persons while they were swiping money from various ATM lounges.
The Nepalis mobilized by the mastermind here are Lawang Tamang from Nuwakot, Laxmi Lama, Nirmala Lama and Nima Tamang from Rasuwa, Sanjay Ghale from Kathmandu, Pushpa Raj Khadka from Sarlahi, Bidya Sagar Lamichhane from Lamjung, Shraban Kumar Shrestha from Tanahu, Sunita Shrestha from Bhaktapur, Bijay Saha and Chandra Bahadur Budha from Kailali, and Suwankar Panja from Kolkata,India. All of them are arrested, but mastermind Peter is on the run.
Peter had mobilized Nepali agents to open current account and deposit in various banks and withdraw later.