The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Bhubaneswar has managed to nab a scammer in connection with the Bank of India cheque cloning case amounting to Rs 9.6 crore. The accused, Pomesh Tembhare, was arrested from a village in Madhya Pradesh on April 26, and he will be produced before designated court under OPID Act in Balasore on Monday.

Earlier, the EOW took up the case from Bhanjapur police in Mayurbhanj in which the Bank of India Chief Manager in Baripada had alleged about an illegal transaction of Rs 9,56,76,600 from the account of District Mineral Foundation Trust of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj between April 10 and April 18, 2024 through four cheques.

Probe Findings

The saving account of Zilla Parishad, Mayurbhanj is being maintained with Bank of India, Baripada branch in the name of District Mineral Foundation Trust. Senior EOW officials said that some fraudsters, by producing forged/clone cheques, managed to transfer Rs 9,56,76,600 in total to two different accounts in the name of PT Constructions & Supplier maintained with Bank of Maharashtra and S K Enterprises maintained with Punjab & Sindh Bank.

How The Scam Took Place?

The amounts were further diverted/transferred to several other accounts from the accounts of PT Constructions & Supplier and S K Enterprises. Out of the illegally transferred amount, Rs 5,04,06,900 was blocked and Rs 13,56,948 lying in 33 accounts have been frozen.

Shocking Details Of Fraudster

The accused Pomesh Tembhare was found to be the owner/ signatory authority of PT Constructions & Suppliers to which more than Rs 2.68 crore was illegally transferred. Out of this amount, the arrested accused, being the signatory authority, had transferred/diverted the amount to many other accounts apart from self-withdrawals.

After the incident, the accused was hiding keeping his mobile phone switched off in the Naxal-infested village. EOW team with the help of local police and CAPF arrested the accused.

Big Gang Involved

The arrested accused is a member of a larger gang having complex network in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. After this arrest, EOW has got important clues about the entire gang. They are doing these scams for the past 4 years through planned and meticulous methods from cheque cloning to multi-layering of money transfers, creation and operations of multiple mule bank accounts, withdrawal of money, information network, local touts etc.