Twenty-eight-year-old Izazul Sheikh, who was caught at Salt Lake in Kolkata on Friday afternoon for allegedly siphoning off Rs.10 lakh from former Indian cricketer V.V.S. Laxman’s bank account, will be brought to the city on Monday night by Cyberabad police.
Sheikh, who is from Malda, often visits Kolkata and stays in hotels. The Cyberabad police sources said Mr. Laxman used to send emails to a bank in Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar through his yahoo mail ID requesting the manager to transfer money to an account suggested by him. A few days ago, unidentified persons hacked his mail.
“We suspect Sheikh could have managed to open the account and read the content in the mails sent to the bank manager. He might have sent a similar mail to the bank at Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar urging the manager to transfer Rs. 10 lakh to an account opened at a nationalised bank in Salt Lake in the name of Galaxy Enterprises that does not exist. Believing that it was forwarded by Mr. Laxman, the bank transferred the amount,” a senior police official disclosed.
The transaction drew the attention of bank officials in Salt Lake as such a large amount had not been deposited in the account earlier. After informing the local police, the bank officials called Sheikh and made him to wait saying the currency notes were being counted and within minutes, the police came there and took him into custody.
At the same time, Mr. Laxman got an SMS informing about the transfer of money. He immediately spoke to Cyberabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, who sent a fax to Rajeev Kumar, Commissioner of Bidhannagar, stating that Mr. Laxman’s Rs.10 lakh was transferred to an account with a Salt Lake bank.
Cyberabad Additional DCP (Crimes) Janaki Sharmila said a two-member police went to Kolkata and produced Sheikh in a local court which granted eight days transit warrant. “We will bring Sheikh by Monday night after collecting details from Salt Lake bank,” she added.
