Mumbai: Money transfer firm employee, his ex-colleague held for cheating customers

The police said Shaikh and Tawad would misuse customers’ personal information and make illegitimate withdrawals.

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According to the procedure followed by the company, a code is provided to the customer every time a deposit is made, which the customer needs to give to the person authorised to withdraw the money.

“Tawad used to forward these personal codes to Shaikh. Shaikh would use the code, forge his identity and made the withdrawals posing as the customer. The last such encashment was of an amount of Rs 39,000 at an outlet in Chembur,” said an investigating officer.

The con came to light on June 8 after a businessman approached the police claiming that the money he was supposed to collect had already been withdrawn. The Shivaji Nagar police subsequently registered a case of cheating.

The police then alerted all outlets of the money transfer company. On June 18, Shaikh entered the same Chembur outlet posing as one Mukhtar Shaikh and was nabbed. Tawad was arrested on June 22 from the Powai office.

According to sub-inspector Dhanraj Dongre, the police are still on the lookout for one Qasim, who too works in the same Powai office but has not reported to work since Shaikh’s arrest. “We still do not know the extent to the trio’s crime. Our investigations are still under way,” said Dongre.