Three youths,including a graduate,were arrested for allegedly withdrawing Rs 34.80 lakh from the bank accounts of IIT-Delhi through forged cheques,police said. Ajay Kumar Kashyap,Ashu Kumar and Vipin Kumar were arrested following an investigation into a complaint by M K Gulati,Deputy Registrar (Accounts) of IIT-D,that illegal withdrawals were made from the institutes accounts in Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB), said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chhaya Sharma. The police received the complaint on November 1. Kashyap was the first person from the gang to be arrested. Gulati had alleged that on October 19,they were told by Canara Bank that Rs 9.75 lakh was debited from the institutes account although the latter had cancelled the cheque issued by it. They also received statements from PNB that three unauthorised cheques for Rs 9.75 lakh,Rs 7.75 lakh and Rs 7.15 lakh had been debited from their accounts. In the course of the investigation,police collected the forms that were used to open the bank accounts. Upon examining the documents,police learnt that the address given in the forms was fake. The addresses of guarantors or sureties were also verified,but most of them were found to be fictitious. When Vishal Kumar,a surety of the account,was questioned,he revealed that he had provided his bank passbook to a relative Kashyap for taking a car loan. However,he denied that he had ever introduced himself as an introducer or surety. Kashyap was later arrested near IIT-Delhi. He told us that they had committed the fraud under the instructions of one Manoj Tyagi. He was assisted by Ashu Kumar,Vipin Kumar and S Mittal. Ashu Kumar and Vipin Kumar were arrested from Muradnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Sitaram Bazar in Delhi respectively, Sharma said. Ashu and Vipin told police that they opened fictitious accounts with fake IDs provided by Kashyap. They also collected information on existing account holders and used the information as introducer. Later,they opened the accounts and forged signatures of the introducer without the knowledge of genuine account holders. It was decided that while Kashyap and Tyagi would take the larger share of the money procured,Vipin and Ashu would get 10 per cent each. Vipin spent the money for marrying off his sister while Kashyap purchased a plot worth Rs 8 lakh in Muradnagar. Tyagi,who is absconding,was earlier arrested in a similar crime, Sharma said.
