Mumbai: Polices fear of CM prompts speedy pursuit of bank fraud case

After the CM���¢��������s personal secretary reported the bank fraud, the cops immediately registered an FIR as they knew the matter would reach the CM���¢��������s ears soon

In yet another instance that shows how those working with powerful people are taken more seriously, the Worli police scrambled to register and detect a most ordinary case of bank fraud on Tuesday, in order to avoid the ire of the chief minister, whose personal secretary reported the crime. This is followed just four days after the same police station lodged a mobile theft case reported by a former CM's domestic help.

Also Read: Cops rush to find stolen phone of ex-CM-s help!

You have my ear: After the CM's personal secretary reported the bank fraud, the cops immediately registered an FIR as they knew the matter would reach the CM's ears soon. File pic

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' personal secretary, Vivek Bemalwar, approached the Worli police station on Tuesday, after he was cheated of R64,000. Although banks and private financial institutions have been making repeated appeals to customers to not share their bank account details with anyone, Bemalwar was conned into divulging his account number and transaction password, with the help of which some crooks siphoned the money out of his account.

Bemalwar, a resident of Darshan society near Worli police station, got a call from conmen posing as bank officials. They explained they were conducting a KYC know your customers exercise and asked for Bemalwar's bank account number. At first, he refused to share the details, but got nervous when the crooks threatened to close his account. Not only did he give them the account number, but when he got a message with a one-time password OTP for a transaction, he also gave them this information.

"Immediately he got a message that R64,000 was debited from his account, and he realised he had been cheated. He approached us and we immediately registered an FIR, as we knew the matter would reach the CM's ears," said a police officer from the Worli police station, on condition of anonymity.

The police immediately initiated an inquiry to detect the case. "We are checking from where Bemalwar got the call, as
he has shared the caller's phone number with us. We have approached the service provider to get more information," said the officer.

The case has been registered under the Information Technology Act. While Bemalwar's account is with ICICI Bank, the cops are tracking the account to which the cash was transferred.

It should be noted that just yesterday, mid-day had carried a report about how the Worli police lost no time in registering an FIR after former CM Prithviraj Chavan's domestic help complained that his mobile phone had been stolen ‘Worli police,
Crime Branch rush to find stolen phone of ex-CM's help'. The cops had said that although they didn't pay much attention to cases of phone thefts, they made an exception as they didn't want "Chavansaheb to get upset".