Three bank officials booked for ‘wrongful’ Rs 4 lakh transaction

Tarn Taran, June 9

Three bank officials, besides another person have been booked on the charge of swindling an amount of over Rs 4 lakh from the account of a farmer with the help of forged documents. Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Ghanupur Kale, the main accused in the case, has been arrested with Rs 1 lakh in cash, a fake passbook and a fake ATM card.

The victim, Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Mehmudpur village, was an account holder of the HDFC Bank at its branch in Amarkot (Valtoha village). In his complaint to the Valtoha police, he said that a namesake of his, Sukhwinder Singh of Ghanupur Kale (Chheherta), withdrew Rs 4,31,223 from his account with the help of forged documents, despite the fact that his account was linked with his mobile phone number and Aadhaar card. He said all this had been done by Sukhwinder Singh of Ghanupur Kale in connivance with Arun Soni, Manager, HDFC Bank, Chheherta (Amritsar), Kamalpreet Singh, Operations Manager and Pankaj Kumar, Personnel Manager, also of the HDFC Bank, Chheherta.

The complainant said bank officials issued him (Sukhwinder Singh of Ghanupur Kale) a duplicate passbook of the bank and linked his mobile phone number with his (real Sukhwinder Singh) bank account. The accused withdrew the amount with the help of an ATM card on different dates. On the complaint of Sukhwinder Singh of Mehmudpur, the police conducted an inquiry and three bank officials and Sukhwinder Singh of Ghanupur Kale were nominated as the suspects in the case during the preliminary stage of the investigation.

Investigation officer ASI Avtar Singh said a case under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC had been registered at the Valtoha police station against the four suspects. Sukhwinder Singh of Ghanupur Kale was arrested while the other suspects were absconding, said ASI Avtar Singh.