Bhubaneswar, April 28: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha arrested a fraudster for allegedly involved in a check cloning case of Bank of India amounting to Rs 9.60 crores.
The accused identified as Pomesh Tembhare, son of Someswar Tembhare of Bangalitola under Balighat district in Madhya Pradesh was produced before the Court of CJM, Balaghat, MP and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand. Tembhare was produced before the Court of PO, Designated Court under OPID Act, Balasore today.
According to an official release, the case was registered by taking over Bhanjapur PS (Mayurbhanj District) which was registered on the written allegation of Sujata Kanungo, Chief Manager, Bank of India, Baripada that illegal transactions of Rs.9,56,76,600/- has been made from the account of District Mineral Foundation Trust of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj maintained with Bank of India, Baripada Branch by producing four cheques on 10.04.2024 and 18.04.2024.
During investigation, it was found that the saving account of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj is being maintained with Bank of India, Baripda Branch in the name of District Mineral Foundation Trust. The fraudsters by producing clone cheques managed to transfer Rs.9,56,76,600 in total to two different accounts in the name of PT Constructions & Supplier maintained with Bank of Maharashtra and S K Enterprises maintained with Punjab & Sindh Bank.
During investigation, the above mentioned amounts were found further transferred to many other accounts from the accounts of PT Constructions & Supplier and S K Enterprises. Out of the illegally transferred amount, Rs.5,04,06,900 was blocked and Rs.13,56,948 lying in 33 accounts have been frozen.
Tembhare was found to be the signatory authority of PT Constructions & Suppliers to which more than Rs 2.68 Crore was illegally transferred. Out of this amount, the accused being the signatory authority has transferred the amount to many other accounts apart from self-withdrawals.
After the incident, he was hiding himself keeping his mobile phone switch off in Naxal infested village. EOW team with the help of local police and CAPF arrested the accused. His Firm PT Constructions & Suppliers is functioning at Raipur. However the firm is a sham firm and created only for fraud. This accused is a member of a larger gang having complex network in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. After this arrest, EOW has got important clues about the entire gang. They are doing these scams since at least 4 years. They have been doing it through well planned and meticulous methods from cheque cloning to multi-layering of money transfers, creation and operations of multiple mule bank accounts, withdrawal of money, information network, local touts etc.
During investigation, many incriminating clues have been arrived at which are under investigation to reach out to the other fraudsters including the boss of this gang.
