Chhattisgarh: Bank manager, Maharashtra man held for Rs 3.6 crore fraud

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The Chhattisgarh police have arrested the branch manager of a nationalised bank here and a man from neighbouring Maharashtra for allegedly withdrawing Rs 3.6 crore using cloned cheques of different departments of the Bihar government, an official said on Friday.

The police on Thursday apprehended Alok Kumar Verma (38), the manager of city-based branch of Canara Bank, and Suhash Harishchandra Kale (32), a native of Maharashtra's Nagpur, the senior official said.

Three other accused identified as Shamim, Aijaz and Ramesh Thackeray, all hailing from Maharashtra, are still at large, he said.

According to the police, Kale, who identified himself as the director of a real estate firm, fraudulently withdrew Rs 3.60 crore from the bank's Tatiband branch using cloned cheques, with the help of the other accused.

The probe revealed that the accused had siphoned off money from the bank by tampering with cancelled cheques of the Bihar State Road Development Corporation (Patna) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (Patna), the official said.

The forgery came to light when the two Bihar government departments informed the bank that no such cheques were issued to the fake real estate firm, against which the amounts were debited from their accounts, he said.

On learning about the forgery, the bank's assistant general manager lodged a complaint with the Amanaka police station.

During interrogation, Kale revealed that he had opened an account at the bank's Tatibandh branch in March by introducing himself as the owner of a real estate firm, he said.

The accused allegedly withdrew Rs 3.60 crore on four different dates between March 24 to May 1 using seven cloned cheques of the Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited, the official said.

While Shamim and Thackeray, who were the masterminds behind the fraud, took 75 per cent of the money, Aijaz took 15 per cent and Suhash was given 10 per cent, he said, adding that the branch manager got Rs 2.5 lakh for each transaction.

The masterminds Shamim and Thackeray had pulled off similar bank frauds in six cities in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Patna and Jharkhand, the official said.

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