STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested five accused, including a former manager of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and a fake District Horticulture Officer, in connection with an alleged multi-crore-rupee loan scam here, the agency said on Tuesday.
“The arrested accused have been identified as the then J&K Bank Manager (Scale-II) branch Rajouri Jatinder Singh ( now demoted ), son of Dharampal Sharma, resident of Narwal Bala Jammu; fake District Horticulture Officer Mohd Kabir, son of Mohd Yousuf, resident of Fatehpur Poonch; fake Social Mobilizer IWMP Poonch, Mohd Zafeer Khan, son of Zahoor Ahmad Khan, resident of Narol Mendhar Poonch; fake Horticulture Technician-II in Water Shed RDD Poonch Zafar Iqbal, son of Mohd Younis, resident of Ari Mendhar Poonch and fake Horticulture Technician-I in IWMP RDD Poonch Mohd Shakeel, son of Said Mohd, resident of Nowshera Rajouri,” Senior Superintendent of Police Crime Jammu Benam Tosh said.
He said that this case was registered on the written complaint lodged by Chief Manager S&C Division, Zonal office J&K Bank Jammu Mohd Shakeel wherein he alleged that Saleem Yousuf Bhatti, who was contractual employee with IWMP Poonch and others had got activated the inactive accounts of Water Shed Committee at Branch Lassana, Surankote Poonch.
The accused got the nomenclature of the accounts changed, issued fake salary certificates and confirmation letters to different non-existing employees and managed together personal loans, cash credit loans and car loans etc. by posing themselves as government employees. Accused also managed to open fraudulent government accounts at Branch office Mendhar and Branch office Bus stand Mendhar.
They firstly deposited money through different banks/branches in the A/Cs of Water Shed Committee and the fake accounts opened by them, issued fake authority letters instructing the branches to disburse/credit the salary in individual accounts of the accused. Thus the accused managed to fraudulently obtain loans amounting to Rs 5 Crore approximately from the different branches of J&K Bank thereby causing huge wrongful loss to the bank.
Senior Superintendent of Police Crime Jammu Benam Tosh confirmed that while conducting investigation of case FIR No. 86/2023, under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B IPC r/w 7, 13 PC Act in professional manner, CB succeeded in arresting five more accused wanted in the case and investigation is in progress.