CBI Searches 13 Locations, Files FIR In UCO Bank IMPS Glitch Case

The Central Bureau of Investigation has carried out searches in 13 locations, in connection with UCO Bank's IMPS glitch case. It also filed an FIR in this regard.

The searches were conducted across the premises of accused and some other bank officials, at several locations in West Bengal and Karnataka—including Kolkata and Mangalore—according to a press statement on Tuesday.

The agency also recovered electronic evidence like mobile phones, laptops, computer systems, email archives, debit and credit cards during the search, it said.

The CBI filed an FIR based on UCO Bank's complaint, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The investigation is still underway and will take time as there are many accounts that need to be reviewed, the person said.

The development comes days after UCO Bank reported an IMPS glitch, resulting in erroneous crediting of Rs 820 crore to multiple recipients, according to an exchange filing on Nov. 15.

Due to several reports of problems in the channel from Nov. 10–13, the bank put its IMPS channel offline.

In the press statement, the CBI said that UCO Bank filed a complaint against two Support Engineers and other "unknown persons" on the allegations of erroneous crediting of the mentioned amount.

Due to this, it was alleged that 8,53,049 transactions took place and were mistakenly posted in UCO Bank accounts, despite the originating banks registering failed transactions, the CBI said.

Further, several account holders allegedly exploited the situation by withdrawing funds from UCO Bank through various banking channels, the statement said.

However, the bank on Nov. 16 also said that it managed to recover 79%, or Rs 649 crore, of the wrongly credited amount. It also blocked the recipients' accounts and initiated requisite action to recover the remaining Rs 171 crore.