Bank manager, 5 others create NRI’s fake account; booked

A woman manager of the Kotak Mahindra Bank branch, Nakodar, and five other people have been booked by the police for opening a fake bank account of a non-resident Indian (NRI) and making transactions worth ₹ 70 lakh from the same.

The accused have been identified as bank manager Shruti Sharma, two employees of the bank Nitin Bedi and Gurveer Singh Bedi , Mukesh Kumar and Manpreet Singh, both residents of Nakodar, and one Aneeta Rola of Ludhiana resident.

The account was allegedly opened in the bank on the basis of NRI Onkar Singh’s stolen identity proofs. Cash transactions worth ₹ 55.66 lakh and purchase of 500 gm gold worth ₹ 15 lakh were made through this account.

Inquiry officer (IO) Satwinder Singh said the probe was launched after Onkar, 40, a Phagwara resident, filed a complaint before the Jalandhar senior superintendent of police (SSP) in 2015 after he got a notice from the income- tax department over huge transactions from his account since 2008.

As per the complainant, he went to Italy in 2008 and a few months later, he had started receiving income tax notices, but he wrote to the department that he did not have any working bank account on his name.

“When I came back to India, the I-T department again issued a notice in 2011, but I ignored it. In 2015, the department warned that it could seize my properties if did not respond to the notice. Then, I submitted a complaint to the Jalandhar rural police, who later forwarded it to the Economic Offences (EO) Wing for further probe ,” said the inquiry officer.

He said one of the accused Mukesh was his brother’s friend. “Mukesh copied my passport and some other documents to open the account with the help of bank employees by forging my signatures,” The NRI told police in his complaint.

Onkar alleged in his complaint that he had never opened any account in the said bank branch. Nakodar deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Mukesh Kumar said, “We have registered an FIR on the recommendation of the EOW against six people under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 471 (Using as genuine a forged) and 120B (Criminal conspiracy) of IPC act. Accused will be arrested soon.”.

IO Satwinder Singh said that investigation in the case is still on to know the source of money and how it was used by the accused.