An official of a foreign bank with its branch in DLF Phase-II was booked for allegedly cheating several account holders of at least ₹33 lakh by promising them higher interest rates on fixed deposits, police said on Thursday.
Police said that the suspect, who is on the run, had forged documents and prepared fake email addresses which he used to show that senior management officials of the bank had raised the fixed deposit interest rates to 8.95% for the employees.
According to investigators, the accused used to show the forged circular and email to the gullible account holders to convince them to transfer money in his bank account against which he will make fixed deposits so that they can get much higher interest rates than regular customers.
A senior police officer, quoting the allegations of the bank in the complaint, said that a customer of the bank had transacted ₹5 lakh into the account of the official at the same branch which had got flagged in their internal system on August 22.
“The bank directly called the customer and he disclosed that it was the official who had got the money transferred in his account for a fixed deposit. They also recovered a remittance form in which purpose was not mentioned,” he said.
“Sharma was quizzed on August 27 but he failed to give any satisfactory reply immediately after which his banking credentials were locked by senior and was barred from performing any task followed by suspension following which he became traceless. Later, they also recovered the forged letter on his computer which he used to show to the consumers to cheat them,” he said.
Investigators said an internal inquiry was launched from which it surfaced that he had taken more than ₹33 lakh from several account holders that he had remitted to three accounts in his name with other banks.
After the internal inquiry, Royston D’Silva, bank’s chief compliance officer, submitted a written complaint against the accused on August 30. It was finally registered on Wednesday under sections 316(5) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at DLF Phase-II police station after a further probe.
Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of the Gurugram Police, said they will soon record the statements of the victim and bank officials. “Afterwards, action will be taken against the accused,” he said.
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