Shahjehanabad police have booked miscreants who hacked online electricity payment account of Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board Shahjehanabad branch ID and siphoned Rs 18 lakh by duping 300 customers.

According to the police complainant Aftab Beg posted as AE with MPEB lodged a complaint with the Shahjehanbad police regarding online bill hacking of Rs 18 lakh from Shahjehanabad MPEB office using it ID for submission of online electricity payment of bills.

The fraud surfaced after audit was conducted and it was found that from February 7 to March 23 around 300 electricity bills were submitted but were not showing in the audit as they were never deposited with the specified account and were deposited in different account set by hackers.  

A case of fraud was registered by Shahjehanabad police and started further investigation.

During the investigation it was found that the miscreants have hacked ID and password and took money deposited by the customers online. The ID and password of the department were hacked by the miscreants.

The fraud surfaced during the yearly audit conducted by the department and when the department enquired it was found that online fraud has occurred.

Police said nothing could be ascertained at the moment. The people from the department would be questioned and those handling the online deposit section would be quizzed as it is possible that ID and password of the account might have been passed on directly or indirectly.

Other possibility which is more likely is cyber criminals have did the act and cyber crime branch would be roped in to investigated the case.