2 employees of financial firm arrested for Rs 50-cr fraud

The MIDC police on Monday arrested a gang that allegedly tried to swindle more than Rs 50 crore from the bank account of an Andheri-based finance firm using stolen blank cheques.

The MIDC police on Monday arrested a gang that allegedly tried to swindle more than Rs 50 crore from the bank account of an Andheri-based finance firm using stolen blank cheques.

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The arrested accused have been identified as Savita Suvarna, Hiren Pandya, Kumar Rao, Recardo, Anita Vedpathak and two employees of the Angel Broking firm — Manoj Yadav, Devendra Tiwari.

According to the police, 30 cheques were stolen from the office. They approached the police after receiving an intimation from a private bank, where the company holds an account that a Rs 19 crore cheque was deposited from their account to another one in the same bank.

“When the company told the bank that no such cheque had been issued, a case was registered with the police in the first week of June,” said Rajni Salunkhe, assistant police inspector of MIDC police.

The police arrested Pandya from Airoli, who led the police to Yadav and Tiwari, employed in the accounts department of the firm.

They had stolen the company’s cheques and handed them over to Pandya. Pandya then approached Rao, who forged the cheques.

Two cheques were given to Recardo (Rs 23.6 crore and Rs 22.4 crore); Rs 19 crore cheque was issued to Suvarna. Pandya used Suvarna and Vedpathak’s accounts to encash the money.