Bank manager, employee held for forging deceased customer’s signature, accessing funds

PUNE The manager of a bank is among two people remanded to the custody of Pune police on Monday, for forging a customer’s signature to gain access to his investment fund after his death

PUNE The manager of a bank is among two people remanded to the custody of Pune police on Monday, for forging a customer’s signature to gain access to his investment fund after his death.

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The arrested man has been identified as Juben Gandhi (35) a manager at the bank. The other accused is Ankita Ranjan (30), a relationship officer at the bank who was handling the affairs for the now-deceased man in his final days, according to police. The two are in police custody till May 6.

“While he was alive, the woman was his relationship manager and had a good idea about his finances. She had gotten her number attached with his bank account while he was alive in order to keep track of his account activity. However, that information was later misused,” said senior inspector Gajanan Pawar of Vimantal police station.

A complaint in the matter has been lodged by Chandrashekhar Rajagopalan (53), a resident of Vimannagar, whose father is the victim. Rajagopalan’s father passed away on March 10 after which he came in possession of his mobile phone.

On March 22, an SMS arrived on the old man’s phone that claimed that a transaction request related to a mutual fund investment was declined due to a signature mismatch.

The complainant went to his bank to check on his father’s bank account and found that a forged signature was used on March 24 to close a fixed deposit and funds worth ₹2,37,000 had gone missing. Moreover, money from his father’s bank account had also been moved, according to the complaint.

A case under Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating), and 471 (using forged document of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Vimantal police station