Banker loses lakhs in betting, dupes woman to shore up

NEW DELHI: Having lost lakhs of rupees in gambling and betting on cricket matches, a banker decided to make up for his losses by duping a woman from Greater Kailash in Delhi. Before the woman could realise she was being cheated, the banker had withdrawn ₹1.25 lakh in instalments from her credit card.

Tanuj Bhatia, 31, was arrested last week after the investigators sought help from PayTM, an electronic payment site where Bhatia was transferring the money. Romil Baaniya, DCP (south-east), said the police were able to get the entire cheated amount reversed to the victim’s account.

Bhatia had worked with various banks in his 10-year career in the banking sector. At the time of the alleged fraud, he was working as a business development manager with the ITO branch of a multinational bank, said a senior investigator.

“Bhatia was into gambling and betting on cricket matches. He had lost about ₹15-20 lakh over the last five years and had taken loan from private financiers to clear his dues. But the high rate of interest meant the amount kept increasing. He sold his house in Paschim Vihar but that did not solve his problem,” said Baaniya.

Meanwhile, early this year, he came to know that a woman from Greater Kailash-1 was looking for a new credit card. According to DCP, Deepti Nirwal owned a credit card, but wasn’t satisfied with the services and wanted a change.

As soon as Bhatia got to know about it, he contacted Nirwal claiming he was calling as a representative of the bank he worked with. He offered to help her get a new credit card but for that she was told to clear ₹25,000 dues on her previous card.

When the woman received a new credit card this March, Bhatia called her to seek the password she would receive. Once Bhatia had the password, he transferred ₹51,000 to a PayTM account. When Nirwal asked her about the transaction, he told her it was done to clear her dues on the old card. Over the next few days, Bhatia allegedly made similar transactions using the same modus operandi.

The woman got the shock of her life when she learnt later that her dues had never been cleared. She contacted the bank where Bhatia had been employed but was told that he had already left the company and that his phone was unreachable.

A case in this connection was registered at GK-1 police station and the police wrote to PayTM to seek details of the accused. They were informed that Bhatia had further transferred the money from that PayTM account to another one belonging to him.

A surveillance on his phone and the IP address used by him to make PayTM transactions helped track him down to north Delhi’s Keshavpuram last Saturday. His accounts are being checked to ascertain if he was involved in any more frauds.

TANUJ BHATIA, 31, WAS FINALLY ARRESTED LAST WEEK AFTER THE INVESTIGATORS SOUGHT HELP FROM PAYTM