A 56-year-old civil engineer was apprehended by the police for his alleged involvement in a scam where he forged cheques, resulting in the embezzlement of Rs 5.20 crore from a public bank.
According to police, the incident came to light when a complaint was filed by a public bank located at Sansad Marg, reporting fraudulent money withdrawal from a private university’s account in August 2019.
According to a senior police officer, three cheques, purportedly issued by the university, were presented to the bank for clearance.
He said that two of these cheques were successfully cleared, leading to the transfer of Rs 5.20 crore to two different accounts, one in Vadodara, Gujarat, and the other in Betul, Madhya Pradesh. However, the third cheque was halted during the process by a different bank.
The investigation revealed that the funds were diverted from the initial beneficiary’s account to five shell firms based in Delhi. Subsequently, these funds were further routed to different accounts. In specific, a sum of Rs 2.5 crore was credited to the account of “NS Infrastructure” in Vadodara, and Rs 2.7 crore was credited to an NGO’s account in Betul, both allegedly owned by Sangeeta Nagre, the wife of Sharad Nagre.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) Vikram Porwal disclosed that Rs 2.07 crore was then transferred from the NGO’s account to the account of “NS Construction.” The accused, using his mobile phone, sent the remaining embezzled amount of Rs 4.16 crore to Delhi, with him retaining Rs 42 lakh as his share.
The five alleged shell firms were found to be non-existent at the addresses provided in the bank accounts. Further examination of the account statements of these firms revealed that Rs 1.52 crore had been withdrawn in cash.
The suspect was arrested on a Saturday following the investigation. During the interrogation, he disclosed that Amit Aggarwal, who was already under arrest, and Ashok had provided the bank account details of the shell firms. The accused had used forged cheques from the victim bank to carry out the fraudulent withdrawals, diverting the funds through various accounts and eventually siphoning off some amount in cash while diverting the rest to different accounts, according to the police.
The investigation is ongoing, and will take action against all those involved in the scam, said police. (With inputs from PTI)
