Mumbai:
Alert officials at the Airoli branch of ICICI Bank have foiled a bid to siphon-off Rs 3 crore by way of a forged cheque. The Rabale Police, following the complaint have arrested five persons who tried to withdraw the money.
The accused have been identified as Dipak Bedi, 31, Vikas Kumar Sohanlal, 26, Ganesh Shetty, 31, all residents of Dombivli, Prashant Yadav, 28, a resident of Nallasopara, and Nisar Shamsuddin Ahmed, 36.
According to sources, the accused are a part of inter-state gang that forged signatures of people to withdraw money from their bank accounts. The gang has been active since last three-four years. "We have established the link of the accused to a couple of states in south India. The gang might have siphoned-off huge money fraudulently over the years. We are probing the matter," DCP, Zone-I Ashok Dudhe said.
According to information, the accused forged the signature of one Mohammed Akram Karimuddin, a resident of Chennai who had an account at the wealth management branch of ICICI Bank there. "In August this year, the accused managed to obtain a cheque book in the name of Karimuddin from the ICICI Bank branch at Barshi in Solapur district. They put up the cheque at the Airoli branch of ICICI Bank on Tuesday to withdraw Rs 3 crore. But the officials here got suspicious about the authenticity of the document and informed the police," Dudhe said. The possibility of the accused having broken into accounts of customers of other banks is also being probed, Dudhe added.
Investigators apprehend that someone from the ICICI Bank must be involved with the gang, without which it is not possible to commit such a crime. "The gang has earlier withdrawn Rs 6 crore in a similar way from account of a person. The fact that the culprits get information about balance of various accounts having huge money indicates involvement of some insider. The truth would be revealed after thorough probe," said a senior official.
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