Fraudsters siphon off Rs 16.43 crore from Agartala Municipal Corporation's account, FIR lodged

Agartala, Sep 5 (PTI) Police have registered a case against 'unknown fraudsters' for siphoning off Rs 16.38 crore from the account of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) by using cloned cheques, an official said on Friday.

The case has been lodged at West Agartala police station after the zonal manager of UCO bank, Sanjib Roy, found Rs 16.38 crore was withdrawn from the civic body's account by six cloned cheques in August and first part of September.

"Following a specific complaint from a bank official, we have lodged an FIR for siphoning off Rs 16.38 crore from AMC's account on Thursday. Preliminary investigation reveals that the fraudsters operating from Hyderabad had used six cloned cheques to withdraw huge amount from the bank," Officer in Charge (OC), West Agartala police station, Rana Chatterjee told the reporters.

The fraudsters forged the signature of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the civic body, D K Chakma, to withdraw the money while the original cheques are lying with the authority, he said.

Chatterjee said the investigating officer has already collected CCTV footage from UCO bank's Kaman Chowmuhani branch to check who had visited the bank to submit the forged cheques.

"Once we find the persons who had submitted the forged cheques at the bank, we will be able to get vital clues in the investigation process", he said. PTI PS RG