Mumbai: 47 lakh rupees have been illegally withdrawn from the bank accounts of the Maharashtra state's Department of School Education and Sports. In this case, the police have filed an FIR against four unknown individuals. According to a police officer, the money was transferred to other accounts using fake cheque of the School and Sports Department.
According to information received from Marine Drive Police, as per the complaint filed by complainant Sunil Suryakant Hanje (57), the office of Department of School Education and Sports is located in Mantralaya and it has an account in a bank in Nariman Point. Hanje told the police that a total of Rs. 47.60 lakhs was transferred from the bank account of this department to someone else's bank account in 10 installments.
When the department gathered information about this, it was found that the bank had issued cheque books in the name of the department and the money was transferred through the same cheque number, but the cheques through which the money was withdrawn were fake. A police officer said that these cheques had fake seals and signatures of the department. This money was transferred to a total of four accounts.
When police received the complaint, they registered an FIR under sections 419(cheating by personation), 420(cheating), 465(forgery), 467(forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471(fraudulent use of a forged document ) and 34(crime committed by more than one person) of the IPC and started investigating.
A police officer said that the names of the bank account holders in whose accounts this money has been transferred are Namita Bagh, Pramod Singh, Tapan Kumar and Zeenat Khatoon. The police have filed an FIR against these four and their information is being ascertained.
In the complaint given to the police, it has been told that this money was withdrawn between March 2 and April 20. However, this is not the first time that money has been stolen from government accounts. Earlier, 67 lakh rupees were also siphoned off from the accounts of the Tourism Department in the same way.
Between February 13 and February 16, fake cheques were used to withdraw 68 lakh rupees from the Bank of Maharashtra account of the Tourism Department. A case was registered in this regard on March 2. The modus operandi of both crimes is similar, and the police are conducting further investigation.
