SBI cashier in Indore held for withdrawing Rs 99,500 from inoperative a/c

INDORE: A cashier of State Bank of India (SBI) has been arrested on charges of transferring money from an inoperative account and later withdrawing about Rs 1 lakh from the account. Another accused in the case, an accountant and two others are on the run.
Crime branch officials arrested a former cashier posted at SBI Anjod Road branch, KK Sharma, 45, on Wednesday for allegedly transferring Rs one lakh from a dead account to an active bank account and subsequently withdrawing Rs 99,500 from the active account.
Superintendent of police, Indore West, Abid Khan, said a bank customer Bhagwan Das Mali who had opened an account at SBI Ajnod Road branch in May 2014, reported to city police about receiving 3 SMS alerts over his phone about a total of Rs 99,500 having been withdrawn from his account via bank ATMs in October and November 2014.
Crime branch which started investigating the case found a sum of Rs one lakh (Rs 55,000 and Rs 45,000) was first transferred to Bhagwan Das’s account in 2014 from an account opened in the name of Sanwer College in September 1970. With no transaction taking place from the Sanwer College bank account for over decades, bank put the account on hold in 2011 for want of Know Your Customer (KYC) details. At the time of being put on hold in September 2011, Sanwer College’s bank account had Rs 1.60 lakh balance.
“During the course of investigations it was found that Rs 55,000 and Rs 45,000 was transferred from the dead account of Sanwer Colleg to Bhagwan Das’s account using computers of two bank officers, cashier Sharma and accountant Sachin Gokhle,” additional SP (crime) Vinay Prakash Paul told TOI.
He said sustained interrogation of Sharma revealed his and Sachin’s hand in the fraud. “They first transferred the money from dead account to Bhagwan Das Mali’s account knowing fully well that Mali had not taken his welcome kit from the bank and some operatives known to the two bank officers used the ATM card from the welcome kit to withdraw Rs 99,500 from Bhagwan Das’s account from two ATMs at Nayapura and Malharganj in October-November 2014,” said Paul.
Efforts are now underway to nab accountant Sachin, who is presently on leave and to get to their aides of, who withdrew Rs 99,500 from the two ATMs, after concealing their identity.
“We’ve also written to the SBI Regional Office in Indore in the case and requested them to put urgent safeguards for monitoring the money in dead accounts,” he added.