Cops bust cheque forgery racket,arrest 22-yr-old

The Pant Nagar police busted a cheque forgery racket run by a Mumbai resident when his accomplice approached a Ghatkopar bank with a forged demand draft.

The Pant Nagar police busted a cheque forgery racket run by a Mumbai resident when his accomplice approached a Ghatkopar bank with a forged demand draft. The police arrested Kanaiya Gupta,22,when he approached Kotak Mahindra bank with a fake DD worth Rs 40,000.

Gupta told the investigators he was working for a man named Harish Chaudhari who hired people to steal cheques from drop boxes in ATM centres. They were promised 10 per cent of the cheque amount as remuneration. The police said Chaudhari was arrested by the Chennai police for a similar crime in 2010.

Chaudhari used to forge the stolen cheques and transfer the money in his account. He has over 20 accounts in his name in various banks in Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata. Even Gupta has more than eight accounts. Gupta did not trust Chaudhari and therefore planned to withdraw the money on his own, said Assistant Inspector NM Kasar.

The police received a complaint of cheques being stolen from the drop box at Kotak Mahindra bank ATM centre a day before Gupta approached them with the fake DD. The police then compared the CCTV footage of both the days and found that Gupta had stolen the cheque and later approached the bank to withdraw money.

The police are now on the lookout for Chaudhari and an another accomplice named Alpesh Wagela,who helped Gupta steal the cheques. We suspect that Chaudhari is running a country-wide racket. We have frozen Chaudharis accounts, said Kasar.

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