Mumbai: The BKC police have filed a case against a man for defrauding the ICICI BKC bank manager of Rs 7.95 lakh, who pretended an accountant of Bharat Diamond Bourse. The accused told the manager Vishwas Patel, 39, that his colleague was hospitalised for which the money was needed and Patel transferred the money.
On May 13 at 12.16pm, Patel received a call and an unidentified man who claimed to be an accountant of Bharat Diamond Bourse and stated that the director of the diamond firm, Chirag Kumar Sanghavi, was at a hospital where a colleague was admitted.
The caller requested an emergency transfer of funds for the colleague’s treatment. The fraudster also provided a request letter on the letterhead of Bharat Diamond Bourse via WhatsApp.
Although the manager initially insisted that such a transaction was against the rules, the fraudster assured him that he would arrive at the bank within an hour to complete the formalities. In the request letter, the fraudster provided the account details of Punjab National Bank, under the name Akhilesh Kumar, with the signatures of two directors. Consequently, the manager transferred the money to the provided account.
On May 18, an accountant of the diamond firm visited the bank and confirmed that no such request had been made. Realising that he had been defrauded, the manager inquired about the account details where the money had been transferred and found it was traced to Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. The fraudster had withdrawn all the money on the same day – May 13.
The case was filed under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty), along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. The FPJ attempted to contact the bank manager but received no response.
