The South District police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a pan-India cheque fraud racket, allegedly headed by a man from the United States and run by, among others, a senior manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Five persons have been arrested in connection with the case so far. According to the police, crores of rupees were fraudulently transferred from several accounts across the country using cloned cheques.
₹95 lakh
The arrested persons include Pritam Das, a senior PNB manager from south Delhi’s Khanpur branch; Gaurav Kumar Goel, Ashish Kumar Parashar, Amarjeet Singh and Sunil Sharma.
The matter came to light last month after the gang allegedly siphoned off ₹95 lakh from the PNB account of a south Delhi-based non-government organisation and transferred it to an account of the bank in Haryana’s Kurukshetra using a cloned cheque and forged signatures, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police –I (South) Chinmoy Biswal.
Original cheque
“The complainant still had the original cheque, a copy of which was used to transfer the money to M/s Lucky Timber & Iron Store. The complainant also informed that the original cheque bearing serial number 909671 had never been issued,” said Mr. Biswal.
After taking up investigations, the police first traced Amarjeet, who allegedly carried the cloned cheque to a PNB branch.
“He revealed that the cheque was given to him by one Rajiv Gupta and his associates. He agreed to transfer the money in his account after they promised him a commission of ₹30 lakh from ₹95 lakh. Amarjeet, however, didn’t know anything about Rajiv, except his car’s registration number,” added Mr. Biswal.
All for a commission
The registration number helped the police track down the owner, Gaurav.
Upon questioning, Gaurav revealed that he had contacted Amarjeet while posing as Rajiv. Gaurav said one Chirag Chaudhary of Delhi, who is now in the U.S., had roped him in to arrange for clients who took duplicate cheques for a commission.
According to the police, the bank employees first leaked all crucial account information — from the account holders’ details, signatures and stamps to blank cheque leaflets.
The accused reprinted the cheques with the help of customised ink cartridges and graphic designing software, with amount and account details of those who agreed to work on commission.