After receiving tip off from banker, police nab a gang of six, which has duped banks in the city for Rs 24 lakh, after tampering with demand drafts

Alert employee helps cops foil bank robbery

After receiving tip off from banker, police nab a gang of six, which has duped banks in the city for Rs 24 lakh, after tampering with demand drafts

A six member gang, which duped various nationalised banks by tampering with Demand Drafts (DDs) and made away with Rs 24 lakh, has been arrested by the Malleshwaram police.

Mahendra Kumar (45), Dhananjay (40), Ajay (28), Ramu (30), Ramesh (35) and Sridhar (30), were caught on February 19 while they forging a DD for Rs 7 lakh at a city bank.u00a0u00a0

They prepared fake documents like mobile phone bills and election ID cards with the help of which they opened accounts in various branches of the State Bank of India in the city.u00a0

The gang members would purchase DDs in the name of public sector companies like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, National Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited cooperative societies for small amounts like Rs 500, Rs 600 and Rs 750 and would later change the figures to a higher denomination by adding a few zeroes. For eg: If the DD was for Rs 500 they would change it to Rs 50,000. Bank officials often cleared the DD as it would be issued from the same bank.

However, the matter came to light when an alert bank official smelt a rat and recalled that on that particular day a DD for such a huge amount was not issued. When the bank officials crosschecked the records, it was found that the DD was altered. They immediately informed the police.

When contacted Police Inspector M Srinivas said, "They had opened several bank accounts in various branches of State Bank of India. These people used to purchase DDs in the names of HAL, NAL and BSNL cooperative societies for small amount and later used to alter the figures and put huge amounts and deposit it in their banks at Hyderabad and Chennai for clearance."

Not in operation

According to the police, the accused had opened another 15 bank accounts, but they had not started operating them. They have duped banks for Rs 24 lakh of which Rs 7.58 lakh has been spent. They used to withdraw the amount using ATM cards to avoid unnecessary attention from the bank officials.

Srinivas added, "We have seized a computer, a scanner and printer, which they used to prepare fake documents and which they used as identity proof in banks for opening accounts."

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