Engineer held for forging cheques, cheating bank of Rs 5.2 crore in Delhi

A 56-year-old civil engineer was arrested for allegedly forging cheques and cheating a public bank of Rs 5.20 crore, police said on Monday. An amount of Rs 1.52 crore was withdrawn in cash, while the remaining was diverted to different accounts of shell firms, they said. A complaint was received from a public bank at Sansad Marg in the national capital regarding the fraudulent withdrawal of money from the account of a private university. In August 2019, three cheques issued from the university were presented in the bank for clearance, a senior police officer said. Two cheques were presented for clearance through a bank and the same were cleared. An amount of Rs 5.20 crore was transferred to two different accounts, one in Vadodara, Gujarat and another in Betul, Madhya Pradesh. The third cheque was presented through a different bank, but the amount was stopped during the process, police said. The amount was diverted from the account of a first-level beneficiary to the account of five shell firms in Delhi. It was then diverted to different accounts, the officer said. During the investigation, it was revealed that a cheque of Rs 2.5 crore was credited to the account of NS Infrastructure in Vadodara, Gujarat, and another of Rs 2.7 crore was credited to the account of an NGO in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Vikram Porwal said. Later, Rs 2.07 crore was again diverted from the account of the NGO to the account of NS Construction. Both the firms were found registered in the name of Sangeeta Nagre, the wife of Sharad Nagre, the DCP said. The amount of Rs 4.16 crore was further transferred to Delhi in the account of five alleged shell firms by the accused using his mobile. He kept Rs 42 lakh from the cheated amount as his share, Porwal said. The alleged five shell firms do not exist at the addresses mentioned in the bank accounts. Further, on scrutiny of the account statements of the five alleged firms, it was revealed that an amount of Rs 1.52 crore had been withdrawn as cash, police said. The accused was arrested on Saturday, the police said. Nagre disclosed that the details of bank accounts of shell firms were provided by Amit Aggarwal, who has already been arrested. Forged cheques purportedly issued by the victim bank were used to withdraw the amount which was diverted to different accounts. From these accounts, the amount was diverted to the accounts of shell firms.