Mumbai: The police have launched a manhunt for an unidentified person who allegedly forged signatures of officials of an automobile dealer and made unauthorised transactions to the tune of Rs 34.66 lakh from the firm’s bank account.
There are three official signatories of the firm located in Malad. On March 28, the company officials downloaded their bank account statement and noticed four unauthorised transactions. When questioned, the bank manager said he received a call a day prior from someone claiming to be the firm’s director and asked about the interest rate on a deposit of Rs2 crore. A day later, the person sent an email to the bank from a bogus email ID of the company requesting RTGS. However, as signatures of at least two of the three authorised persons were required for the transaction, the request was not processed.
After being informed of the rule, the person resent the RTGS request letter, this time with signatures of two authorised persons. Both the signatures exactly matched the signatures of the officials in the bank records. Hence the bank official completed the verification processes and told the staff to process the RTGS request.
Later, when the company made inquiries with the bank about the transactions, it was revealed that no mail was sent for such transactions. The company official told the police that the firm never dealt with the bank by email.
Case Filed In The Matter
The police registered a case in the matter only recently under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
