The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has busted a racket that tampered with and encashed cheques sent to Mumbai by air mail. The racket, which has been active for a year, involved creating fake accounts in banks to divert the money before withdrawing it from ATMs. The police arrested four accused and recovered 45 cheques from them.
Crime Branch officers said the racket was uncovered after a Mumbai-based businessman registered a complaint with Goregaon police. He claimed that a cheque for ₹1.85 lakh had gone missing, and the amount was debited from the payer’s account in July.
A Crime Branch officer said, “We tracked the trail of money and found that the money was diverted to an account opened in the Jaipur branch of the Central Bank of India. The money was debited to its Vasai branch.”
Further inquiries led to the arrest of Gyanchand Parihar (45), a Nallasopara resident, who was kept under watch for nearly a month. The police later zeroed in on three other suspects: Sanjay Jain (42), Sohan Bhanawat (34) and Sunil Yerpude (50). Yerpude was employed with the air cargo unit of the Postal Department in Sahar. All four were arrested between Thursday and Friday.
An officer said, “Yerpude would open the packages containing cheques sent to the Mumbai Air Cargo unit and pass them to Parihar. He would use razor blades to scratch out details of the payee and replace them with details of accounts the gang had set up. Jain and Bhagwat would deposit the cheques and the money would be withdrawn from ATMs. Some cheques were rejected as tampering was detected.”
