Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing, Odisha, has arrested one more fraudster in connection with Rs 9 crore Bank of India cheque cloning case.
The arrested has been identified as Ghanashyam Ahuja of Chhattisgarh. “He was nabbed on June 1, produced before CJM, Bilaspur, and brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand. He will be produced in the Designated Court under OPID Act, Balasore, today,” an EOW release said.
The case was registered on basis of a complaint filed by Chief Manager of Bank of India, Baripada, Sujata Kanungo about illegal transactions of Rs 9,56,76,600 from the account of District Mineral Foundation Trust of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj, through four cheques on April 10 and April 18. The EOW took over the case from Bhanjapur police on April 19.
The investigation revealed that the fraudster used forged/clone cheques and managed to transfer the amount to the accounts of PT Constructions & Supplier (Rs 2,68,42,300) with Bank of Maharashtra and S K Enterprises (Rs 1,84,27,400) with Punjab & Sindh Bank. He further diverted/transferred the money from the accounts of PT Constructions & Supplier and S K Enterprises to several other accounts. “Out of the illegally transferred amount, Rs.5,04,06,900 was blocked and Rs 13,56,948 lying in 33 accounts have been frozen,” it said.
The release further stated that Ahuja is the owner/proprietor of Ahuja & Associates and also the signatory authority of the firm’s account. “It was found that Rs 63,69,601 was transferred from the account of PT Construction to the account of Ahuja & Associates, and Rs 11.60 lakh was withdrawn from the account by the accused who then transferred the rest amount to different accounts. He posed as an CA having office at Raipur and in connivance with other accused allowed his account maintained with IDBI Bank for diversion of the fraud amount.”
Following the arrest of one accused, Pomesh Tembhare, from a village in Madhya Pradesh on April 26, Ahuja fled to his native place Raipur and hid in a rented house at Bilaspur. He also managed to get another Aadhaar card in the name of Rakesh Kingrani.
“He is a member of a larger gang having complex network in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. After this arrest, EOW has got important clues about the entire gang. They have been perpetrating such frauds/scams for last 4 years in an organized manner by using the clone cheques, multi-layering of money transfers, sometimes using mule accounts and by manipulating the information network. Many incriminating materials like laptop, two mobiles, three pen drives suspected containing vital clues and ATM cards were seized from him,” it further said.
Tembhare, proprietor of PT Construction & Supplier, is in judicial custody, it added.