PNB forgery case, 2 more held

NAGPUR, Aug 9: The Crime Branch has arrested two more suspects in the forgery case at the Bharat Nagar branch of the Punjab National Bank...

NAGPUR, Aug 9: The Crime Branch has arrested two more suspects in the forgery case at the Bharat Nagar branch of the Punjab National Bank and are in search of some more accomplices who pulled off serial withdrawals to the tune of Rs 5.54 lakh from the account of local businesswoman Bharati Sancheti.

The duo was identified as Rajesh Manikrao Mokde and an auto-driver Danteshwar alias Gopal Balkrishna Maharana 26 of old Phutala vasti.

Contrary to the information received on Friday from unofficial sources, it has now been officially disclosed that Vijay Harbaji Nighot, the prime suspect, was not employed with Sancheti but was working as a peon with the bank.

In fact, it was during his work that Nighot managed to steal a blank cheque book Nos 276001 to 25 from the bank and used the same to pull off the serial withdrawals. Nighot and the two others have been remanded to police custody by a local court till August 11 and the police are expecting to recover the money during their ensuinginterrogations.

Sancheti who runs a construction firm, had opened an over-draft O/D account with the bank in 1996. She was since using the account sparsely and had kept a significant amount of cash as standby for business dealings.

Nighot was aware of this and had seen her signatures quite a few times from the cheques she had furnished to the bank on previous occasions.

For days together, he practiced signatures of Bharati Sancheti and put his plan on the roll 8211; in associate with Maharana, Mokde and other aides.

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It started with a test-ride8217; withdrawal of Rs 15,000 on April 3. Emboldened by the success, the amount went up to Rs 27,000 in the second withdrawal on April 11 and was doubled to Rs 54,000 during the third, on April 13.

Subsequent four withdrawals on April 20, 29 and May 4 and 8, were of identical amount of Rs 57,000 each and the amount shot up to Rs 75,000 in the in the eighth and again the ninth withdrawal. Then came the tenth and final withdrawal of Rs 80,000 on June 22.