Man held for having 26 fake bank accounts

The Mahim police arrested a Mira Road resident, who allegedly opened 26 fake bank accounts in three different banks in the city.

The Mahim police arrested a Mira Road resident, who allegedly opened 26 fake bank accounts in three different banks in the city.

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Mohammed Rafique Salek, 36, used the bank accounts to help two Nigerians channelise the funds they earned by duping people through an online jackpot or by offering people a job in the UK or US. The money was collected from victims for processing their documents.

Salek, who earlier owned a butcher shop, closed down his business after the two Nigerians — Daniel Opara, 46, and Johnson Olufemi alias Prince, 46 — made him an offer to earn 5% commission on every transaction carried out through his account.

On November 15, when Salek visited ICICI Bank’s Mahim branch to open a new account, the bank manager noticed something amiss and immediately called the police. The bank manager checked Sakel’s documents online and found out that he already had accounts at the Andheri, Bandra and Khar branches of the bank.

“Salek had approached the bank’s Mahim branch to open an account in an alias name, Pramod Madhukar Devgare. But, he ran out of luck when the manager noticed that Salek had used fake documents to open over 26 accounts in different banks,” said Vinay Kulkarni, police inspector. The police have launched a manhunt for the two Nigerians, who were hiding at Salek’s home in Mira Road.

Charudutt Deshpande, spokesperson of ICICI Bank, said: “The bank does not have the power to arrest anyone so we collect the evidence and hand the person over to the police,” said Deshpande.