Man held for cheating bank customers

A 28-year-old man carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 has been arrested for allegedly cheating bank customers by forging their signatures, police said Friday.

The accused Ram Singh is a resident of Tilak Nagar, they added. Singh along with his associate hired girls who used to engage the victims on the phone when the bank withdrawal message would be sent by the banks, police said.

The accused was arrested on January 22 after police received information that Singh was hiding in Aurangabad. Sensing his arrest, the accused managed to flee to Delhi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.

After reaching Delhi, Singh collected money from his mother and was trying to procure a new SIM using a fake identity. He was supposed to meet a friend in Vikas Nagar for this purpose, he said.

A trap was laid near a drain in Uttam Nagar's Vikas Nagar area. Singh was apprehended by the police team after a brief chase. Mobile handsets with SIM cards used for cheating were also recovered from his possession, he added.

Investigations revealed that Singh had contacts in various banks and through these contacts he managed to procure the details of customers whose bank accounts were registered or not registered with SMS facility.

Then, he would chose both active and dormant accounts of the customers with sufficient balance, the DCP said.

During interrogation, Singh disclosed that he came in contact with one Jitender who lured him into committing these crimes. He used to make several fake IDs with different names for the same, he said.

Singh along with his associate Jitender used to make fake bank cheques by forging the signatures of the customers and withdrew money from the accounts and then they went off the radar, the DCP added.

During this process, customers were unable to get the transaction SMS sent by the bank, he said.

In one particular case, the accused duo had swindled Rs 55 lakh from the account of a victim, while in another case they swindled Rs 58 lakh, he said.

In most cases, the bank as well as the customers were unaware of the forged transactions. The gang has been active since the last three years and had defrauded several persons. Further investigation is underway, police said.