Ahmedabad: A resident of Amraiwadi has been accused of opening accounts at a cooperative bank using forged documents. The con came to light when an assistant general manager at the bank near Law Garden flagged discrepancies after an email update revealed mismatched customer details.
The Navrangpura police registered a case of cheating and forgery against the accused on Friday.
The manager told police that he received an email from a customer in Oct, saying his account details had been changed without his permission. The photo and phone number were incorrect, suggesting someone else had tampered with the details
“The bank tracked the customer’s number and retrieved the central know your customer (CKYC) and account opening form from the Law Garden branch. A review by the general manager, assistant general manager and branch manager revealed that the phone number and photo on the customer’s Aadhaar card did not match the details in the bank records,” he told police.
“Further investigation showed that the photo in the account opening form belonged to a different person. The account’s transaction history revealed that an amount of Rs 1,000 was deposited on Oct 22. The next day Rs 21.04 lakh was deposited by cheque, and Rs 3.30 lakh was withdrawn on Oct 24. Subsequent transactions ran into lakhs,” stated the complaint.
Investigations also allegedly revealed that photo on the Aadhaar card provided for account opening was not that of the customer’s. “We found another account that had been opened at the Vasna branch last June; the photo matched the customer who had sent the email. However, other fake accounts had been opened there, with a total of Rs 42.09 lakh deposited and Rs 42.07 lakh debited. Two other accounts at the Vasna branch were opened in the names of the customer’s wife and partners.”
The manager told police, “The customer who sent the email had opened his account at the Panjrapol branch in 2011. The fraudster forged his signature and his Aadhaar card to open multiple accounts in other branches.”
The Navrangpura police registered the case under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(2) (forgery), 336(3) (commits forgery, intending that the document or electronic record forged shall be used for the purpose of cheating), and 340(2) (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.