New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS): With the arrest of sacked BSF constable, the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police have busted a nexus of cyber cons involved in siphoning off Rs 70 lakh from a large numbers of Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) of Border Security Force personnel.

Ghanshyam Yadav (33), a resident of district-Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh was the mastermind of the nexus and was presently living in Prayagraj under assumed false identity.

According to police, a complaint was received from NPS Section, BSF wherein it was alleged that Rs 70 lakh had been fraudulently siphoned off from Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) through 89 fraudulent transactions of 65 employees of BSF through online facility of partial withdrawal of accumulated funds by self-declaration or authentication under National Pension Scheme during Covid period.

"During investigation, Ghanshyam was apprehended from Prayagraj who was living there in rented accommodation with his paramour under assumed identity of Shyam Singh. He had presented himself as constable in the communication department of UP Police. He had a sticker of Police on his car and a cap and uniform of UP Police," said Prashant Gautam, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO).

Ghanshyam even got his name changed on his Aadhaar card by uploading a forged request for name change on the portal of Aadhar authenticated by using forged stamp of CMO Prayagraj.

"The trail of the whole cheated amount from PRANs has been established to be credited in two accounts of Rewa, Madhya Pradesh," said the official.

On interrogation, it was revealed that a special online OTP based mechanism was allowed to be used for partial withdrawal i.e. 25 per cent of self-contribution of accumulated funds in PRAN under NPS through self-declaration or authentication during Covid considering the hardship being faced in offline requests.

"Ghanshyam was posted as a constable in BSF in 122nd Bn. in Malada, West Bengal in May 2019 when he was dismissed from services. During the same period, he got the login credentials of 122nd Bn. of BSF," said the DCP.

"He got unauthorised access to the NPS portal through stolen credentials of 122nd Bn BSF and got himself familiar with all features and functions of the NPS portal. He learned about the vulnerability in NPS online system in getting access in the account through change in security questions and exploited the same to get unauthorized access in five more DDO's accounts of BSF," said the official.

Having access to a database of PRANs of all personnel, Ghanshyam targeted the subscribers in whose account email ID and mobile number were not found to be associated with their PRAN otherwise they might have been alerted if any change would have affected their details.

After having money of partial withdrawal from PRANs in given accounts, Ghanshyam used to transfer the same to others accounts to get it encashed through money exchangers and his other known persons.

"The money used by him to purchase a Baleno Car in the name of his paramour with whom he was living in Prayagraj. Some money was invested for purchasing a flat in Prayagraj which is being verified," said the official, adding that the role of other persons is being probed by serving notices to join investigation as per procedure of law.