By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Economic Offences Wing, Odisha, arrested one accused fraudster Ajmir Mondal, on 23.07.2024 from Nalpur, PS-Sankrail under Howrah Commissionerate, West Bengal, in EOW PS Case No.05 dt.19.04.2024 U/s 419/420/467/468/471/120-B IPC. After arrest, the accd. was produced before the Hon’ble Court of CJM, Howrah, WB and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand.
The arrested accused is going to be produced before the Hon’ble Court of PO, Designated Court under OPID Act, Balasore, today i.e. on 25.07.2024.
The case was registered by taking over Bhanjapur PS (Mayurbhanj District) case No.95 dt.19.04.2024 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, Baripda 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 forged/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 diverted/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 different accounts have been frozen.
The arrested accd. Azmir Mandal was found to be the owner/ signatory authority of S K Enterprises to which more than Rs.1,84,27,400/- was illegally transferred. Out of this amount, an amount of Rs.4 lakhs has been withdrawn by using cheques whereas an amount of Rs.1.08 lakh has been withdrawn by using ATM. The rest amount has again been diverted to more than 15 accounts.
The arrested accuse Ajmir Mondal is a habitual economic offender having his involvement in two of the cheque cloning cases registered with EOW, Odisha. He is also an accused in EOW PS Case No.07/22 which relates to the illegal transfer of the funds of Barbil Municipality by using forged/clone cheques. Out of the total fraud amount of Rs.2,45,60,850/-, an amount of Rs.1,30,70,770/- was illegally credited to the account of Ajmir Mondal maintained with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.
This accused is a member of a larger gang having complex networking in different States like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. After his arrest, EOW has got important clues about the entire gang. They are doing these scams for last 4 years. They have been doing it by adopting deceitful methods from cheque cloning to multi-layering of money transfers, creating and operating multiple mule bank accounts, withdrawing money in different layer and using information networking and even using the local touts etc.
As found, the arrested accused Ajmir Mondal is the part of the racket involved in cheque cloning and his accounts in different banks are deliberately being used for the transaction of fraud amount. The accused was concealing himself for long to evade the police arrest.
Earlier, two accused persons namely Pomesh Tembhare and Ghanshyam Ahuja were arrested from MP and Chhattishgarh respectively. During investigation, many incriminating clues have been availed from the arrest of the accused. Three mobile phones suspected containing incriminating materials have been seized from his possession. The investigation of the case is on.
