ICICI Bank Officer in Kota Dupes Customers of Over Rs4 Crore Using Fake FDs, Invests in Stocks: Report

Moneylife Digital Team 06 June 2025

Economy & Nation

In a deeply disturbing breach of trust, a woman bank officer in Rajasthan’s Kota allegedly siphoned off more than Rs4.5 crore from customers’ accounts by manipulating fixed deposits (FDs) over two years. The accused, Sakshi Gupta, was working as a relationship manager (RM) at ICICI Bank when she executed the fraud, reportedly driven by the hope of making quick profits in the stock market.

According to a report from NDTV, Ms Gupta exploited her access to the bank’s internal system, specifically the ‘user FD’ link, to carry out unauthorised withdrawals. Between 2020 and 2023, she is alleged to have withdrawn about Rs4.58 crore from 110 FD accounts belonging to 41 customers. Investigators say she invested the funds into the stock market but suffered significant losses and could not return the money.

The fraud went undetected for nearly two years. It finally came to light in February this year, when a customer visited the Bank to inquire about his FD and found discrepancies. ICICI Bank promptly lodged a police complaint on 18 February 2025. Ms Gupta was arrested last night while attending her sister’s wedding and has since been remanded to judicial custody, the report says.

The investigation has uncovered that Ms Gupta even changed the mobile numbers linked to the victims’ bank accounts to prevent them from receiving transaction alerts. “She linked the phone numbers of her family members to these accounts and devised a system to intercept OTPs on her own device. This way, the account holders had no idea what was happening,” investigating officer Ibrahim Khan told NDTV.

In a statement, a spokesperson of ICICI Bank says, "The interests of our customers are of paramount importance to us. Immediately upon discovering the fraudulent activity, we filed a first information report (FIR) with the police. We have a zero-tolerance policy against any fraudulent activity and thus suspended the employee involved. We would like to reassure that genuine claims of impacted customers have been settled."

This case underscores the vulnerability of even regulated financial institutions to insider fraud. It also raises serious questions about internal monitoring systems and the ease with which one individual was able to manipulate multiple customer accounts undetected for such a long period.

Authorities are continuing their investigation to determine whether anyone else was involved or complicit in the fraud. Meanwhile, customers are being urged to regularly check their bank statements and transaction alerts, and to immediately report any irregularities.

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