Bank staffer siphons off Rs 32 lakh from a police account

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A bank employee is under arrest after he forged documents in the name of a senior police inspector and swindled Rs 32 lakh from an account opened by the Navghar police, which had money recovered in a cheating case 20 years back. For nearly 20 years not a single senior inspector paid attention to the account. The arrested accused, Vinod Singh, is employed by an outsourced company and is on contract with the bank. After his arrest on Tuesday he was sent to judicial custody.

On June 14, newly appointed Senior Inspector Duttaram Girap called Jayanand Rane, a constable looking after property seized in a crime, to have a review of properties seized in the past by cops. While checking the register, Rane saw the details of an account opened with Dena Bank (now merged with Bank of Baroda) in 2004, which had Rs 16.80 lakh recovered from an accused in a cheating case. Rane was shocked to find only Rs 32 in the account. A year before, Rane had updated the passbook and noted the account had Rs 32 lakh.

"The account was opened in the year 2004 with Rs 16.80 lakh and since then the interest on the principal amount accumulated, doubling it by June 2022. When the constable discovered the money had been withdrawn, he immediately alerted the senior inspector," said a senior police officer.

The senior inspector immediately ordered an inquiry in the matter and found the account was still in the name of Lakshman Kharpade, then senior inspector, The account had been frozen over time, but was reactivated on March 28, 2023 by submitting KYC documents. The statement of the bank showed that Rs 33.26 lakh had been transferred from the account from May 5 to May 16.

Senior inspector Girap and other officials approached Bank of Baroda, Mulund, and checked where the money was transferred. The bank informed the cops that on May 10, a person claiming to be LD Kharpade had come to the bank and withdrawn R5.10 lakh by cheque. He also transferred Rs 28 lakh to the Chembur branch of Jan Small Finance Bank in an account with the name Yuvi Finance. The account was opened by a woman named Vineeta Vinod Singh, a resident of Titwala.

The account which had approximately Rs 4 lakh was frozen. It was found some of the money had been transferred to an account in the name of Vinod Singh, a resident of Andheri. After finding the culprit, the cops immediately registered an FIR against Vinod and others.

"Vinod Singh is a contractual employee deputed in the Mulund branch by a private company. He had access to the database of the bank through which he found the accounts which were non-operational," said a police officer. "Vinod forged Aadhaar and PAN cards in the name of SI Lakshman Kharpade but put his pictures on them. After transferring Rs 24 lakh to his account, he transferred approximately Rs 99,000 to three people through mobile banking," he added.

According to the statement of the constable, the previous 10 senior inspectors deputed at Navghar police station did not pay any attention to the account at the bank. The complainant constable even reminded a previous senior inspector about the account, but he allegedly didn't find it important.