Bank Executive Withdrew Rs.50L By Forged Signature

Bank executive forges signature of dead NRI, steals Rs 50L from account-Times of India 07.01.2014
MUMBAI: A bank executive has been arrested for stealing almost Rs 50 lakh from the inactive account of an NRI who had died by breaking every rule of professional ethics, ferreting out customer information and manipulating safety procedures. Two of his accomplices were also held.

Police have recovered Rs 15.5 lakh and an account with Rs 11 lakh that was opened with fake documents to perpetrate the fraud has been frozen. The three, booked for criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery, are in police custody till January 10.

The Matunga police arrested Mahendra Gurav, 32, a customer service manager with ICICI Bank's Dadar branch, his friend Rajesh Jamkar, 39, and Jamkar's friend Ballu Gate alias Sandeep Kale, 32, after ICICI called in the cops when an internal probe proved the fraud. By then, Gurav had managed to move Rs 49.28 lakh to the fake account and withdraw much of it.

The bank spokesperson said they have zero tolerance of employee misdemeanor and the staffer has been suspended. "This is an isolated incident and the bank would like to reassure its customers of its strong and robust processes," the spokesperson added.

Gurav, who told the police he needed fast cash to pay off debts, hatched the plot in October 2013 and began a random search for dormant accounts. He landed on the NRI account of Gobind Kaur, a senior citizen settled in the UK . Gurav procured cheque leaflets for the account bypassing all safety norms. Getting the specimen signature was easy for the bank employee.

Kaur's family in the UK was unaware about the fraud till the Chandigarh branch got in touch with son to check. He said Kaur had passed away on December 3.

A mail was sent on January 1, 2014, to Dadar branch deputy manager Rekha Lad about the fraud. After an internal probe, the bank complained to the police on January 4. It gave details of Dhanlaxmi Bank in Matunga where the four cheques were cleared to Gate's fake account. Based on inputs from both banks, DCP (zone IV) Dattatray Karale formed a team of Matunga senior inspector Raghvendra Thakur, inspector Uddhavrao Karande and sub-inspector Atul Adurkar. They nabbed Gate when he came to withdraw money. He led the team of Gurav and Jamkar the same day.

"Gurav claimed he was unaware the NRI account holder had died. He chose the account randomly thinking it was dormant and no one would come to know if he targeted it," said Karale.

Gate had withdrawn over Rs 38 lakh from the Dhanlaxmi Bank's cash counter and ATMs last year in between November 11 and December 27. Some of the money is yet to be recovered.

"Gurav said he was facing financial crisis and wanted fast money to clear his debts. It forced him to take up the fraud despite earning a decent salary working with the ICICI bank for the last 2 ½ years," said one investigator.
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