Ludhiana: Fraud suspects withdraw ₹16 lakh from frozen account

FIR registered Arun of Khera Mastan village in Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh and Ashish Kumar of Panipat in Haryana; one of their aides is yet to be identified; police suspect involvement of bank employees

Two fraud suspects managed to outdo the Samrala branch of a small finance bank as they withdrew ₹16 lakh from their two bank accounts which had been frozen by the Mumbai police following some dubious transactions. After making the transactions, the accused are untraceable and their mobile phone numbers switched off.

The accused’s account was frozen so they visited another branch of the bank to withdraw cash.

Following a complaint filed by the cashier of the bank, the Samrala police registered an FIR against Arun of Khera Mastan village in Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh and Ashish Kumar of Panipat in Haryana. One of their aides is yet to be identified. The police also suspected involvement of bank employees.

The complainant said the accused had two individual accounts and a current account in the Ludhiana-Chandigarh Road branch. On October 16, the accused turned up in the bank branch in Samrala to encash two cheques worth ₹8 lakh each instead of visiting their home branch. They were accompanied by two former bank employees.

The complainant added that minutes after she paid ₹16 lakh to the accused, the bank received an online complaint over National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) portal in which it was stated that the accused had received money in their accounts through fraudulent means. Minutes later, the bank received a notice from the CID department of Mumbai police about the accounts, stating that the accounts had been blocked.

The bank officials suspected that the accused were aware that their accounts were blocked following which they approached the Samrala branch for cash instead of their home branch. The officials also added that a former staffer of the bank had enquired about availability of cash with the branch on the same day, when the accused made the transactions.

Following the complaint, Khanna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ashwani Gotyal had ordered a probe. Deputy superintendent of police (DSP, Samrala) found during the probe that the accused had opened the bank accounts on July 3 with the help of a bank employee.

ASI Avtar Chand, who is investigating the matter, said an FIR under Sections 316 (2) and 318 (4) of teh BNS has been registered against the accused. It is suspected that the accused were linked with online fraud activities. The police are also scanning the role of bank officials. According to information, one of the employees left the job after the fraud and joined some other bank.