Cheque Cloning Case: Rs 16L recovered from suspect by Police

Pundaliknagar Police, investigating the inter-state cheque cloning racket, has recovered Rs 16 lakh that was withdrawn by one of the suspects.

It is the first recovery made by the Police after an FIR was registered in the cases that reportedly has connections in different parts of the state & in Bihar. 

According to Police, they are looking for 3 more suspects in the case — a local politician, an educationist & a banker.

A Police officer said that “All three are from different districts of the state, & only after their arrest, other members of the racket would come on record & procedure to arrest them would be initiated".

“We have recovered Rs 16 lakh from an accused identified as Bhagwan Muley of Karmad," said Investigation officer & Assistant Inspector Ghanshyam Sonawne.

Currently, Muley & Shivaji Thombre of Gadhejalgaon are in the judicial custody. An accomplice of Thombre has gone underground.

Investigation team has found that an amount of Rs 97,000 was withdrawn from a nationalized bank on Feb 4 & this was followed by transfer of Rs 16 lakh on February 5. Later, on February 7, an attempt was made by the suspects to withdraw Rs 78 lakh. All the transaction was done by using cloned cheques.

The officer said that “Initial probe has revealed role of a suspect hailing from Vasmat, but we are finding it difficult to trace him. Thombre along with his close-aide from Vasmat bought material worth Rs 10 lakh from Muley, who apart from being an influential sarpanch, has several businesses in Karmad & surrounding areas".

He added that “The duo handed over cloned cheque of Rs 16 lakh belonging to Bablu Laxman Hari of Bhagalpur in Bihar to Muley & asked him to get the amount transferred to his account. The suspects then asked Muley to deduct the outstanding amount & give back Rs 6 lakh to them".

Thombre along with the suspect from Vasmat have been working closely with a Vidarbha man, who through his contact in banks got details of accounts that do not have mobile phone numbers linked to them & misused the information for carrying out the fraud transactions.

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