Bhubaneswar: Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha, arrested one more fraudster Ghanashyam Ahuja alias Rocky Kingrani of Chhattisgarh, on Monday in Bank of India cheque cloning case involving around Rs 9.6 crore under sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120-B IPC.
According to an official press release, after arrest, the accused was produced before the Court of CJM, Bilaspur, Chhattishgarh and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand. The arrested accused will be produced before the Designated Court under the OPID Act, Balasore today.
The case was registered by taking over Bhanjapur police station case of April 19, this year which was registered on the written allegation of Sujata Kanungo, Chief Manager, Bank of India, Baripada that illegal transactions of Rs 9,56,76,600 had been made from the account of District Mineral Foundation Trust of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj maintained with Bank of India, Baripada Branch by producing four cheques on April 10 and 18 this year.
During the investigation, it was found that the savings account of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj is being maintained with Bank of India, Baripada Branch in the name of District Mineral Foundation Trust. The fraudsters by producing forged/clone cheques managed to transfer Rs 9,56,76,600 in total to two different accounts in the name of PT Constructions & Supplier (Rs 2,68,42,300) maintained with Bank of Maharashtra and S K Enterprises (Rs 1,84,27,400) maintained with Punjab & Sindh Bank.
During the investigation, the above-mentioned amounts were found further diverted/transferred to many other accounts from the accounts of PT Constructions & Supplier and S K Enterprises. Out of the illegally transferred amount, Rs 5,04,06,900 was blocked and Rs 13,56,948 lying in 33 accounts have been frozen.
The arrested accused Ghanshyam Ahuja alias Rocky Kingrani is the owner/ proprietor of Ahuja & Associates and also the signatory authority of the firm’s account.
During the investigation, it was found that an amount of Rs 63,69,601 had been transferred from the account of PT Construction to the account of Ahuja & Associates, and an amount of Rs11.60 lakhs was withdrawn from the account by the present accused Ghanshyam Ahuja who transferred the rest amount to different accounts.
The arrested accused Ghanshyam Ahuja is a B.Com. pass out but posing as a Chartered Accountant having office at Raipur, in connivance with other accused persons allowed his account maintained with IDBI Bank for diversion of the fraud amount.
Getting the scent of arrest of one accused in this case, the present accused fled away from his native place Raipur and went into hiding in a rented house at Bilaspur, and managed to have another Aadhaar card in the name of Rakesh Kingrani with the nickname Rocky.
Accused Ahuja is a member of a larger gang having a complex network in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
After this arrest, EOW has got important clues about the entire gang. They have been perpetrating frauds/scams for the last four years in an organized manner by using clone cheques, multi-layering money transfers, sometimes using mule accounts by manipulating the information network etc.
Many incriminating materials like a laptop, two mobiles, three pen drives suspected of containing vital clues and ATM cards in the case have been seized from the arrested accused Ahuja.
One accused Pomesh Tembhare, proprietor of PT Construction & Supplier, has earlier been arrested in the case and is still in judicial custody. Further investigation of the case is underway.
