Insta
UP Police (Representative Image) (Pic Via Wikipedia)
In a major breakthrough, four people were arrested for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 6 lakh from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's bank account in September, said Ayodhya DIG Deepak Kumar on Tuesday (29 December).
According to the police, the amount was transferred to the Punjab National Bank in Maharashtra from Ayodhya's State Bank of India using two cloned cheques of Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh with the forged signatures of the trustees.
The scam was busted after a third cloned cheque was intercepted at a SBI clearing house in Lucknow.
It on the first day of September and for 10 days, the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was in the dark about the fraudulent withdrawals till a third cloned cheque of Rs 9.86 lakh was presented at a Bank of Baroda's branch and sent to SBI for clearing. Alarm bells rang when a senior bank official intercepted the cheque and made repeated calls to Trust secretary Champat Rai to verify whether he had signed on the high-value cheque.
The transaction was stopped immediately after Rai confirmed that he did not approve of any withdrawal and the account was seized.
An FIR was lodged at the Ayodhya police station by Champat Rai on 10 September.
Those arrested have been identified as Prashant Mahaval Shetty (40), resident of Bombay, Vimal Lalla (40), Shankar Sitaram Gopale (54) and Sanjay Tejraj (35) all from Thane district of Maharashtra. However, the mastermind of this scam is still absconding, a resident of Banaras.
The Ayodhya DIG said that the involvement of bank employees in this fraud cannot be ruled out.
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
Support Swarajya's 50 Ground Reports Project & Sponsor A Story
Every general election Swarajya does a 50 ground reports project.
Aimed only at serious readers and those who appreciate the nuances of political undercurrents, the project provides a sense of India's electoral landscape. As you know, these reports are produced after considerable investment of travel, time and effort on the ground.
This time too we've kicked off the project in style and have covered over 30 constituencies already. If you're someone who appreciates such work and have enjoyed our coverage please consider sponsoring a ground report for just Rs 2999 to Rs 19,999 - it goes a long way in helping us produce more quality reportage.
You can also back this project by becoming a subscriber for as little as Rs 999 - so do click on this links and choose a plan that suits you and back us.
Click below to contribute.
Latest