Kutch’s ‘dirty dozen’ still at large

Six days after a cheating complaint was filed, the ‘dirty dozen’ who siphoned off Rs 2.93 crore from various banks in Kutch district remain at large.

The operational head of Writer Safeguard Pvt. Ltd, which handles cash refilling in automatic teller machines (ATM)s for several banks, had filed a complaint on Wednesday (September 12), alleging 12 employees of the company escaped with Rs2.93 crore.

But neither the company nor investigating agencies have managed to trace them.

District superintendent of police, Divya Mishra, told DNA over the phone from Kutch that they were hopeful of cracking the case soon. “We are on the lookout for all the 12 accused and, once nabbed, we will find out their exact roles,” he said, adding their search had not yielded any results yet. “We have accessed their call details and are analyzing the information,” he said.

However, he also said the investigation was complicated and documentary evidence was crucial as all the accused named in the complaint could not viewed as miscreants. Investigating officer Hardevsinh Vaghela said probe was on, and success was close at hand. He said the police initially did not even have the full address of four of the accused and that took up a fair amount of time.

A cheating and conspiracy complaint was filed at four different police stations in Kutch district and investigation was handed over to the LCB. The four banks targeted by the accused are Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.