Ex-banker booked for cheating, again

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24

After a local court denied him bail in a fraud case involving Rs 13 lakh, yet another case of fraud by an ex-ICICI banker has come to light. The police have registered a case on the complaint of a city resident, who was allegedly duped of Rs 49 lakh by Arun Saluja and his mother on the pretext of sending him and his family to Australia.

A resident of Sector 38 (West), Kamaldeep Verma, had written to the SSP, Chandigarh, alleging that in April last year, Saluja and his mother Sudesh Kumari had told him that they had good relations with contractors in Australia. As Verma is a contractor himself here, he would get a good job there, the accused had assured. He was allegedly told that his family and he could settle there and demanded Rs 75 lakh for the same.

They also assured that the entire process would be completed in six months. Allegedly, they promised that if they failed to get the work done, they would return the money. Accordingly, on April 28, 2017, Verma claimed to have paid a sum of Rs 9.50 lakh, Rs 8 lakh on May 12, Rs 12.50 lakh on May 22 and Rs 9 lakh on June 27. Besides, on July 7, 2017, he transferred a sum of Rs 10 lakh through the RTGS to the account of Kumari.

With a passage of time, the duo stopped responding to Verma’s queries and he grew suspicious. On asking another person who was into the immigration business, Verma realised that he had been duped as there was no such immigration policy in Australia as informed to him by Saluja.

After confronting the mother-son duo, Verma was given a cheque by Kumari. The cheque for Rs 49 lakh was dishonoured due to insufficient funds. He again approached the duo, which flatly refused to return his money. A case under Section 420 has now been registered against both Saluja and his mother at the Sector 17 police station.

It was previously reported that Saluja’s bail plea had been declined in a case, wherein he had allegedly duped an elderly woman of Rs 13 lakh. He had taken money for investment purposes. According to the woman, when she called the bank branch, they had informed that Saluja had cheated multiple people and had not come to the bank for some time.