MP bank siphoned off more than ₹200 cr to fake accounts: Officials

More than ₹200 crore was siphoned off from a cooperative bank in Madhya Pradesh to various account holders using fake accounts in 2015, people familiar with the developments said

More than ₹200 crore was siphoned off from a cooperative bank in Madhya Pradesh to various account holders using fake accounts in 2015, people familiar with the developments said.

HT Image

While manager of Dabhora cooperative bank, Ramkrishna Mishra, was arrested in 2015, the Economic Offences Wing will soon begin a probe into the role of other employees, they added.

According to officials in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), more than ₹200 crores was transferred from the bank to at least 11 accounts in various private banks.

These 11 accounts, according to the officials, were opened using forged documents, and photographs and addresses belonging to various people.

The photograph of a daily wage labourer, Pramod Shukla, was used to open one such fake account. Shukla, who earns ₹8,000 per month, was unaware about transactions worth ₹40 lakh made via the account till he got a call from the police a few days ago as part of the probe into the case.

“I am a daily wager and don’t have an account in any bank. Some police officers told me that some fraudster used my picture and name for opening an account. Now, they have launched an investigation to find out who did it and how,” Shukla said.

Mishra has been accused of using the fake accounts to transfer the money to his relatives.

“We found that the accounts were opened using fake identity cards. The account holders turned out to be daily wagers and farmers. The accused used the picture of one person and the address of some other person. Similarly, they opened a company account by using the address and picture of a farmer, Shyam Kumar,” an investigating officer said on condition of anonymity.

“The accused used these fake accounts more than a thousand times to transfer around ₹200 crore from the bank to various accounts,” he added.

Using the siphoned off money, real estate was purchased by the accused in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai, the investigating agency said, adding that a probe into the properties is underway.

“The role of bank officials of the other private banks is also under scanner as they opened these accounts without physical verification. We will interrogate them too,” Virendra Jain, SP, EOW, Rewa, said.

The bank has closed accounts of beneficiaries who deposited their savings into the bank.