Another accused is absconding; the duo would pretend to be customers and steal cheques from drop boxes of nationalised banks
The accused Shakil Ibrahim Zariwala was arrested for forgery and cheating
The Sakinaka police have arrested a 40-year-old man from Andheri for allegedly replacing the RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) form attached to cheques in the drop boxes of nationalised banks and transferring Rs 3 lakh. Another accused in the case is still at large.
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According to the police sources, the arrested accused has been identified as Shakil Ibrahim Zariwala alias Anwar Khan.
During the inquiry, it was revealed that Khan, along with his aide, opened the drop boxes of the nationalised banks and replaced the RTGS forms attached to the cheques, with forms containing another account number.
Another person involved
During interrogation, it has come to light that an accomplice is also involved in the crime. The duo visited different banks in the morning for recce. Zariwala would stop at the bank, pretend to be a customer, and search for targets.
When the target was finalised, Zariwala would inform his aide. Later, he would enter the bank, pretending to be a customer. He would, then, take advantage of the situation and steal the cheques from the dropbox, said an officer.
Account number turned out to be fake
The incident came to light when the Balaji Engineering Steel Corporation located in Andheri registered a complaint at Sakinaka police station on January 12, claiming that Rs 3 lakh were debited from his account.
The complainant had put a cheque of Rs 35 lakh in the bank's dropbox along with the RTGS form to transfer the money to his other bank account. However, instead of transferring Rs 35 lakh, his account was debited of Rs 3 lakh.
When the police questioned the bank employees, they said that they had made a mistake and had transferred only Rs 3 lakh instead of Rs 35 lakh in the account, said an officer.
"On checking the RTGS form, we found that the account number written on it was different from the complainant's account number. The account number belonged to some Kotanyaga Bhushan from Yes Bank, which turned out to be fake," the officer added.
Bank employees never noticed
“CCTV footage of the bank showed a man opening the dropbox on January 12, between 1 pm and 3 pm. He was seen taking out a cheque, which was attached to a form, instead of it being dropped in the cheque box, in front of the bank employees," said another officer.
"We, later, found that the accused had detached the RTGS form from the cheque deposited by Balaji Engineering Steel Corporation, and replaced it with another one, containing another account number. He also carbonised the signature on the form right in front of the bank employees, but they could not notice it," the officer said.
Similar cases at 2 police stations
He added, "We circulated the CCTV grab of the accused to other police stations to find out whether the accused was wanted anywhere. We learned from the Amboli and Jogeshwari police that similar cases were registered with them. We learned from informers that the accused was spotted in Amboli and was a resident of that area. We laid a trap and arrested him."
Zariwala has been arrested under various sections of The Indian Penal Code, including forgery and cheating. He was produced before the court and was remanded to police custody.
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