New Delhi: Indian Air Force (IAF) has fallen
victim to a major swindle when nearly Rs 50 lakh was
fraudulently withdrawn in several transactions from its
account in a public sector bank.
The amount was released by the bank to the fraudsters
who had presented counterfeit cheques with forged signatures
at the bank branches`s in different parts of the country in
the first half of June and withdrew from the IAF`s public fund
an amount in all totalling Rs 48,41,910, the IAF said here
today.
The fraudsters, who posed as retired IAF men, had used
fake discharge book and certificate of service to open bank
accounts to which the IAF money was transferred.
The fraud was detected by officials of the Air Force
Central Accounts Office, who also lodged a police complaint.
Besides lodging an FIR with the police, the IAF also
ordered a probe into the case. It also asked all its
establishments to validate its public and non-public accounts,
a press release issued by the IAF said.
"The withdrawals were done using counterfeit cheques with
forged signatures that were cleared by the bank," the IAF
said, noting that between June 4 and 10, a total of 15 cheques
were dropped at drop boxes of a nationalised bank at different
locations nationwide and the bank officials released the
amount without verifying the genuineness of the cheques or the
signatories.
The amount was transferred to other bank accounts in the
name of non-existent individuals across the country and the
fraudsters withdrew Rs 14 lakh from the fictitious accounts
through debit cards from ATMs, the IAF said quoting sources in
the banks that were cheated.
"The exact amount lost is yet to be ascertained," it
added.
Fortunately, the bank agreed to reverse the entire
transaction to the IAF accounts, "as it was their
responsibility to verify the genuineness of the cheques and
their signatories," the IAF said.
"The cheques were dropped at drop boxes at various places
and the banking system failed to detect the fraudulent cheques
with fake signatures," it added.
The fraudulent cheques originated from various parts of
the country based on fictitious bank accounts opened,
presumably by production of fake documents like discharge
book, certificate of service among other such documents.
"The IAF is assisting the bank in their enquiry and has
submitted the complete schedule of original cheques to
facilitate both the detection of the fake cheques as well as
the clearance of the genuine cheques," the IAF added.
PTI
