Thrissur: A whopping Rs 2.44 crore from unknown sources reached the account of two youths here overnight!
They spent the entire money by purchasing four iPhones, repaying loans and doing online trade, fully knowing that the money had arrived in the account by mistake. By the time the bank realised the blunder, not even Re 1 was left in the account of the youths.
The Cyber Cell police arrested the youths, Nidhin and Manu of Arimboor, Thrissur, after the bank filed a complaint. The incident took place a few days ago.
The youths have been doing online trading for years. One of them is an employee in a mobile phone showroom.
'Smart' investments
An amount of Rs 2.44 crore reached the account of one of the youths by mistake during activities related to the server merger of a private bank.
Though such incidents do happen on rare occasions, normally, most customers inform the bank and get the mistake rectified. But what the two youths did first was to pay off at one go all the loans taken by them. After this, they bought four iPhones of the latest model. Then their fancy turned to online trading. The two youths competed with each other to spend the money before the bank would take the money back. They deposited lakhs of rupees in different accounts for online trading and the share market.
They opened accounts in other banks and transferred the money to 54 accounts in 19 banks, besides conducting 171 online transactions. The youths got into trouble after the bank realised the error and filed a police complaint.
Crime Branch Station House Officer Brijukumar said that there were no previous cases against the two youths.