Garlic trader cheats bank of Rs2 lakh in Mumbai

Shivaji Park police arrested a person on Sunday for allegedly duping the Bank of India to the tune of Rs2.23 lakh with a forged cheque of a private company.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Dilip Kumar Gupta. “The suspect conducts a garlic trade at Plaza Market in Dadar. He has been booked for forgery and cheating,” said an inspector from Shivaji Park police station. He said they recovered Rs45,000 from Gupta, who is in judicial custody till June 11.
Gupta said that after realisation of the cheque, he had withdrawn Rs76,400 using his ATM card and Rs1,47,200 through cheques.

On May 19, Vithoba Sawant, branch manager of the Shivaji Park branch of Bank of India, wrote to the police stating that their account holder Gupta had allegedly forged a cheque (No508992) of M/s Machine and Mechanical Company on April 26. The cheque was for Rs2,25,700. Satish Sakhardande of the company had filed a complaint with the bank.

Sakhardande told the bank that his cheque (No508992) of the Wadala (West) branch of Bank of India was for Rs2,340 and issued to a canteen owner, SN Kamath, on May 3. This amount, he said, was credited to the Corporation Bank account of Kamath. Sakhardande questioned the bank for the two cheques bearing the same numbers.

Gupta told the police that the cheque that he deposited was given to him by his friend Prakash. However, he could not explain why it was given to him. The police officer said a manhunt has been launched to nab Prakash.