Mumbai: A man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly siphoning Rs 33.26 lakh from a bank account registered in the name of the Navghar police station located in Mulund. The accused was identified as Vinod Singh, a resident of Andheri.
Constable Jaynand Rane was the first to spot the financial irregularities. Bank statements suggest that the transactions were made by Lakshman Kharpade, a retired senior cop. However, a detailed investigation revealed that Kharpade has no idea about the fraud and seemingly the con forged his identity to commit the crime.
Balance down to just Rs 32 from Rs 32 lakh
Bank accounts of police stations are registered in the name of the station in-charge (senior police inspector) and used to deposit money recovered from cases of robbery, theft, etc. According to Rane, they had deposited Rs16.8 lakh in the account back in 2003 when a case was solved under Kharpade's guidance.
As per protocols, new senior inspectors have to get the bank account transferred in their names after assuming charge of the police station. However, nine cops, who succeeded Kharpade, didn't bother to follow the norm. On June 10, senior Inspector Dattaram Girap took charge of the Navghar police station and asked Rane to begin formalities for transferring the account in the former's name.
A rude shock was in for Rane when he visited the bank and found that the account balance was down to just Rs32 from Rs32 lakh. The baffled constable met the bank officials who informed that several transactions were made to an account, Yuvi Finance.
As the account was still in Kharpade's name, the police contacted him only to learn that the news was even a surprise for the retired cop. A probe ensued with the scanning of CCTV footage. The visuals showed Singh withdrawing the money with the help of PAN and Aadhar cards forged in Kharpade's name.
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