Over Rs 46 Lakh Withdrawn From Odisha Govt Official’s Bank Account With ‘Fake’ Cheque

Jagatsinghpur: A state government officer lost more than Rs 46 lakh after a bank transferred the amount against a cheque carrying his ‘fake’ signature in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur town.

According to sources, a cheque of assistant director, Handicrafts, was produced in Jagatsinghpur branch of Bank of Baroda (BoB) on June 17. The cheque was submitted with request form for an RTGS transaction of Rs 46,12,900.

After making necessary checking for authenticity of the cheque, the BoB officials transferred the amount to the account of Ruma Telecom in Indian Overseas Bank (IOB).

The BoB officials followed the usual process of confirming clearance through the registered mobile number of the account holder of their bank. The signature matched with the sample and cheque went through the ultra-violet machine for genuineness, TNIE quoted them as saying.

On Tuesday, when BoB officials informed the assistant director about the remittance, the latter reportedly claimed that he had not sent any cheque or letter for RTGS transfer of money.

Following this, manager of BoB Prasant Rout lodged an FIR with Jagatsinghpur police alleging fraud, requesting to recover the amount from the whoever was responsible for it on Wednesday.

“We have registered a case under Sections 419, 420, 468 and 476 of IPC and investigation is underway,” said Investigation Officer-cum-SI of Jagatsinghpur police station Rajendra Bhol.