Cop, lawyer, banker booked for helping woman divert funds from her late bro’s accounts

Mumbai: A criminal case has been registered against a woman for allegedly misappropriating the lifetime savings of her brother, who died of Covid last year

Mumbai: A criminal case has been registered against a woman for allegedly misappropriating the lifetime savings of her brother, who died of Covid last year. The cops have also booked a police sub-inspector and lawyer and a banker for allegedly helping the woman.

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The Charkop police registered an FIR after the wife of the deceased approached court which directed the police to register an offence and probe the matter.

The 49-year-old woman, J Anthony is a teacher by profession and has been working in Oman since 2000. Her husband Ambrose Anthony used to work in Muscat in a private company, while their children stayed in India. The family has a flat in Malad West and the complainant and her husband would visit the house once or twice a year.

As per the police complaint, in April 2021 complainant’s husband contracted Covid while he was in India and was admitted in a private hospital in Malad West. Anthony arrived in India on April 13, 2021, from Oman to look after her husband. However, on April 21, 2021, he died of a deadly infection.

After her husband’s last rituals were performed, Anthony claimed, her sister-in-law Jenifer Atken Fereira snatched her brother’s iPhone from Anthony’s hand in front of everyone. She also suspected that Fereira had hidden her husband’s laptop, bank passbook, passport, fixed deposit documents, a Rado company’s watch etc. She alleged that the sister-in-law refused to hand over all these to her and also fought with her.

Later Anthony discovered that Fereira also allegedly fraudulently withdraw money from her husband’s bank account using his ATM card and also transferred money from his bank account to her bank account.

“Fereira did not disclose information of her husband’s death to the bank and withdrew the money from his account. Fereira also used her brother’s mobile phone allegedly to en-cash two Fix Deposits, opened by her brother, before maturity and transferred ₹34,58,351 of the FDs into her personal bank account. When Anthony lodged a police complaint against her on August 17, 2021, she transferred back ₹24 lakh in a bank account she jointly held with Anthony’s son,” Anthony alleged in the FIR.

Anthony alleged that the manager of the bank also helped Fereira in the alleged fraudulent acts. She claimed that the lawyer she had hired to legally fight Fereira also helped Fereira. She alleged that the lawyer took advantage of her lack of knowledge of legal provisions and clandestinely got her signature on a document that requested police to close her complaint against Fereira.

The complainant has alleged that a sub-inspector attached to Charkop police station closed Anthony’s complaint based on the letter submitted by her lawyer. The police officer purposely delayed the registration of the FIR and also furnished false information as reply to a query under the Right to Information Act. The investigating officer submitted that the complainant (Anthony) along with the lawyer were present in person and submitted a request to close the complaint. However, Anthony was in Oman during the relevant time, Anthony said in her statement to the police.

Pursuant to the court order, the Charkop police have registered an FIR under sections 166A (B), 378, 404, 415, 416, 424, 425, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act against Fereira, the police sub-inspector, the lawyer and the banker.