Crime

A senior Accounts officer of the Burdwan Municipality was intercepted by the Maharashtra Police today on charges of pilferage of the municipality fund using cloned cheque pages bearing counterfeit signatures. 

 

In phases, Rs 1.43 Crore was withdrawn from the Punjab National Bank surprisingly by a Wardhwa, Maharashtra based jeweller, Anup Kothari. 

 

The PNB branch manager of Hingonghat branch in Wardhwa, Manish Uttam Jigrole, suspected a fishy deal, because, the Bengal municipality had nothing to do with the Maharashtra jeweller. He'd lodged a complaint, and based on what an investigation was kicked off. 

 

The investigation revealed that the cheques, though, were kept in the civic body’s physical possession, surprisingly, were produced at the branch for cash withdrawals, which had triggered off the suspicion. Later, the officials unearthed that the cloned cheques were utilised bearing the counterfeit signatures of the officials. The Accounts Coordinator of the Burdwan Municipality Sameer Ranjan Mukherjee was actively involved in the pilferage that had helped the Mumbai-based fraudsters to pilfer Rs 1.43 crore from the account of Burdwan Municipality in two phases. The matter had first come to light on 3 September 2024 after a new cheque, worth Rs 97 lakh, was presented at a nationalised bank for withdrawal.

 

What was intriguing is that the cheque book of the municipality is intact with the civic body.

 

Senior bank officials suspect the cash withdrawals were made using some cloned cheque pages as the original pages were still lying in Burdwan Municipality’s custody.

 

 

Sudipta Ghosh, branch manager of the bank in Burdwan, said, “The cheques were debited from Mumbai. We suspect the fraudsters had deposited cloned cheques for the purpose of looting.” The manager suspected fraud after a third cheque, worth Rs 97.52 lakh, was presented at the bank to be credited in favour of one Mumbai jewellery house. He called up the civic body’s finance officer. Ghosh said, “They were speaking in Hindi, which intensified my suspicion.”

 

The executive officer and the finance officer of the civic body are empowered as the signatory authorities. “They didn’t sign any such cheque, and we never issued any cheque to the Mumbai jeweller or any agro farm. Moreover, the cheques, bearing the same corresponding numbers, are still in possession of the municipality. It is surprising that cash was still withdrawn,” said Paresh Chandra Sarkar, chairman of the municipality.

 

He added, “The fraudsters had further deposited the Rs 97.52-lakh cheque bearing counterfeit signatures, which ambiguously was issued in favour of the same Mumbai jeweler The payment process was stopped by the bank after they informed us.” The Municipality had lodged an FIR with the Burdwan PS.