Five Bandhan Bank employees have been arrested in Calcutta and Jharkhand for allegedly orchestrating a ₹2.47-crore cyber fraud.

The arrested employees used customer data allegedly accessed illegally from the bank’s core banking system and passed it on to fraudsters in exchange for money, according to the West Bengal Cyber Crime Wing.

The data was used to contact customers through fake WhatsApp calls, texts, and phone calls, with the fraudsters posing as bank managers. Customers were misled into sharing personal and banking details under the pretext of incomplete KYC, which were then used to commit the fraud. “They used forged bank logos to gain trust. Apart from financial losses, the bank’s reputation suffered serious damage,” a senior officer said.

The accused include Yashwant Prasad alias Sunil, 34, a CRO at the bank’s Hazaribagh branch; Subham Kumar, 30, a CRO at the Jamtara branch; and Sourav Kumar Singh, 30, sales manager at Dhanbad’s Saraidhela branch. The trio were arrested between August 11 and 18.

Following leads from their interrogation, two more were arrested in Calcutta on August 22 — Asad Raza, 32, sales manager at the Metiabruz branch, and Yashir Arafat, 27, a CRO at the same branch.

“Raza is linked to at least 47 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), involving fraud worth over ₹1.19 crore,” said an officer. “Around 124 NCRP complaints were linked to Prasad, Kumar, Arafat, and Raza.”

“This shows that despite repeated warnings, people are still unaware of how cyber frauds operate,” he added.

Investigators said the group’s modus operandi mirrors that of the Jamtara gang. “Instead of luring victims with fake loans or vacation offers, the accused promised high-return fixed deposits, LIC, and insurance schemes,” the officer said.

The probe began in June after Bandhan Bank filed a complaint at Bidhannagar cybercrime police station. The Bengal cybercrime wing later took over.