Rourkela: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Friday arrested a city-based businessman for alleged cheque fraud worth Rs 2.87 crore.
The accused was identified as B Murty Pillai, the owner of BMP and Sons Construction Pvt Ltd in Rourkela.
EOW sources said the accused, who has a cash credit account at a Bank of India (BOI) branch in Rourkela, had deposited a cloned cheque of Rs 2.87 crore as original on November 3, 2020.
The cheque was purportedly issued from the account of M/s Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited (KSCMFL) in a BOI branch in Bengaluru. The cheque was cleared by the Rourkela bank officials and the money was deposited in Pillai’s account.
Later on November 20, the officials of the Bengaluru bank intimated their counterparts in Rourkela that the original cheque was still in the possession of M/s Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation. As such, the cheque deposited by Pillai was a fake one.
Following this, BOI’s Rourkela branch manager Anjani Kumar Singh Azad lodged a police complaint against Pillai.
During investigation it emerged that after the fake cheque was cleared, Pillai transferred Rs 2.6 crore to the accounts of his own company on November 11, 2020. He transferred the rest of the money to the accounts of his relatives.
Pillai was finally arrested on Friday and forwarded to the SDJM Court at Panposh, EOW sources said.
