In the latest case of breach of security at a back office in India, close to $233,000 (approximately Rs 1.8 crore) appears to have been siphoned off the accounts of around 20 customers from the HSBC Electronic Data Processing India centre in Bangalore.

In a police complaint, the HSBC unit has alleged that an employee, Nadeem Kashmiri, 24, had accessed personal and debit card information of some of its customers in the UK, and passed it on to his associates for conducting fraudulent transactions through ATM, debit card, and telephone banking services.

According to the cyber crime cell of the police, the accused has been absconding since the firm conducted an internal inquiry.

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"Since he is absconding, we have detained his relatives to elicit information about his whereabouts," they said.

Reacting to the happening, an HSBC spokesperson said, "The affected customers have been contacted. Genuine victims of fraud will not suffer a financial loss."

HSBC has around 10,000 employees across four such centers in India, at Hyderabad, Vizag and Kolkata, besides Bangalore. The Bangalore centre was opened in 2002.