The Kathmandu District Court has ordered the release of nine accused on bail in the case related to the theft of Rs 35 million from the bank account of IT company F1Soft International Private Limited.
A bench of Judge Mahendra Bahadur Karki on Wednesday ordered the release of nine defendants on bail.
The court has sought Rs 500,000 each from Rahul Thakur and Purushottam Shah, Rs 50,000 from Deepak Thapa Magar, Rs 200,000 from Kamal Thapa Magar, and Rs 100,000 each from Trigunaratna Bajracharya, Krishna Raman Raut, Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Sandesh Rai, and Sagar Kumar Sah.
It was found during investigation that their bank accounts had been used to transfer money from F1Soft’s bank account.
The Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police had investigated the matter and submitted its report to the District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu. The DGAO then filed a case against 24 people at the Kathmandu District Court on January 2 charging them with swindling money from F1Soft’s bank account.
Among the 24 defendants, only nine were in police custody. Fifteen others are absconding.
Police are still investigating the matter. They have not been able to identify the key suspects behind the theft yet.
A total of Rs 35.15 million was withdrawn from the bank account of F1Soft International without anyone’s knowledge through multiple withdrawals between October 1 and October 4 last year.
Dhiraj Kumar Bhujel had filed a complaint of fraud through electronic media on behalf of the company at the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police. In the complaint, he had alleged ‘unauthorized’ withdrawal of money from the company’s bank account.
The charge sheet filed by the government attorney does not disclose how money was withdrawn by gaining unauthorized access.
Superintendent of Police Deepak Raj Awasthi, spokesperson for the Cyber Bureau, said earlier that money was withdrawn by somehow obtaining the bank’s system administrator’s login credentials.
“The company’s account is in Citizen Bank. Someone seems to have somehow obtained the admin and password,” Awasthi told Setopati. “Investigation into it still ongoing, we have not yet revealed how and from where it was exposed.”
According to police, money was transferred through a user that was not used frequently.
It was found that the bank accounts of the defendants were used for transferring money, Awasthi said. “Those arrested are not people with much knowledge of technology. They are people whose accounts were used,” he added.
Most of the defendants are aged 18 to 24 years. They also include a student of 12th grade.
The DGAO has sought punishment for the defendants according to the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017.
