Recently a firm in Nagpur, Everon Energies deposited three account payee cheques in their Bank of Baroda Mahal branch’s dropbox; out of three two cheques two cheques issued by Somani Plywood & Hardware each bearing Rs.1,50,000 drawn on Canara Bank got stolen and this scamster prepared duplicate or fake cheques in his name of the same amount and transferred money in name of Ashok Kumar by depositing such fake or duplicate cheques in his Bank of India account.
Taking this issue in public interest, a delegation of Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) led by its president Shrawankumar Malu met & submitted a memorandum to Gorakh Bhamre – Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone III and held discussion in detail.
Shrawankumar Malu, president of VTA submitted that this trend is very dangerous wherein the cheques got stolen from the custody of Bank of Baroda and how come Bank of India, Kadbi Chowk Branch, Nagpur cleared such duplicate or fake cheques without verifying UV or watermark markings.
Tejinder Singh Renu, secretary of VTA said, such a crime raises a serious question whether someone from the staff from both the banks are involved in this crime as the cheques got stolen from the custody of Bank of Baroda and the Bank of India failed to check / verify duplicity of the cheques. And obviously the Bank of India account in Sarangpur UP where the amount got transferred must have been opened by fake Ids, so this branch also failed to check credentials of the client before opening a bank account.
VTA also gained knowledge that another similar theft has occurred with Alka Nitin Kariya with her cheque getting stolen from Central Bank situated near Telephone Exchange Square and that money too got transferred in the name of Ashok Kumar, probably the same scamster.
VTA requested DCP Zone III to get this FIR registered and investigate this crime extremely seriously as with such cases; even the Account Payee Cheques aren’t safe anymore. And we are sure, these two must not be the only case; there are bound to many more and in other cities too, taking such a fraud into crores of Rupees.
Gorakh Bhamre – DCP Zone III enquiring more details understood the seriousness of the crime and assured VTA that through investigation will be carried by police, including banks after verifying CCTV footage and other records.
Also present in the delegation were Hemant Trivedi – vice president, Amarjeet Singh Chawla & Rajesh Kanungo – Joint Secretaries and Pawan K. Chopra – Treasurer.