Probe has revealed that he has stolen lakhs of rupees by stealing cheques from the dropboxes of 22 banks in Palghar and nearby areas over the past four years
Police say accused would forge cheques by erasing account payee details and make fake Aadhaar cards to withdraw cash. Representation pic
The Virar police arrested a 32-year-old man from Nalasopara on Saturday for allegedly withdrawing Rs 45,000 cash from a bank using a cheque that he stole from the dropbox. Investigation has revealed that he has stolen lakhs of rupees by stealing cheques from the dropboxes of 22 banks in Palghar and nearby areas and forging them.
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The accused has been identified as Piyush Sharma. According to the police, Sharma was previously caught by the Manikpur police in 2017 in a similar offence.
The incident came to light when the manager of a government bank in Manvelpada approached the Virar police station with a written complaint. The manager in his statement said that one of their customers had dropped a Rs 45,000 cheque in the dropbox last week, but even after several days the amount did not get credited to his account. That is when the customer approached the bank and thereafter it was found that someone had withdrawn cash using the same cheque on the day he dropped it.
When the bank authorities checked the CCTV footage, an unknown person was spotted stealing the cheque from the dropbox and some time later he withdrew cash over the counter using the same cheque.
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When the bank checked the transaction, it noticed that the account holder’s name was written on the backside of the cheque, which the customer said was not done by him.
A police officer said, “With the help of CCTV footage, we started the investigation and caught Sharma from Nalasopara after which he confessed to the crime. He would roam around banks on a daily basis and observe the customers who would drop off cheques. Then he would steal some on getting an opportunity and escape.”
“He would then go to a nearby cyber café and prepare fake Aadhaar cards with the names written on the cheques and then withdraw cash showing the same. He would erase the account payee details from the cheques,” said another officer from Virar police station.
Using the same modus operandi, the accused has stolen cheques from more than 22 banks in Mumbai, including Nalasopara, Vasai, Virar and Bhayandar in the last four years.
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