New Delhi: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, created for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, has been defrauded of Rs 6 lakh by unidentified persons using cloned cheques. The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said that unknown fraudsters used two clones cheques to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh from the Trust’s bank account earlier this month at the Nayaghaat branch of the State Bank of India.
According to the Indian Express, the matter was unearthed when the Trust’s general secretary Champat Rai was called on Wednesday after a third cheque numbered 740798 to withdraw Rs 9.86 lakh was placed for clearance. Rai was asked by the bank to verify if the Trust was making a withdrawal. Rai confirmed that the said cheque was still in the cheque book, meaning the fraudsters had cloned the cheque.
Subsequently, Rai made a complaint and an FIR was registered at the Ayodhya Kotwali police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including using as genuine a forged document, forgery for purpose of cheating, cheating and cheating by impersonation.
Rai mentioned in the FIR that two cheques, numbered 740799 and 740800, were used to withdraw Rs 2.50 and Rs 3.50 lakh on September 1 and September 8 respectively. “All the given cheque numbers are already there in the cheque book, meaning that unidentified persons have taken a total Rs 6 lakh using two fake cheques and fake signatures to their account,” the FIR reads.
The cheques for the Trust’s account need the signatures of Rai and Trust member Anil Mishra.
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According to the police, these cheques were placed for clearance in Mumbai, for which UP police teams would be sent to Mumbai for investigation.
The first two cheques were credited to a PNB account in Maharashtra, which has since been frozen, according to the Times of India. However, Rs 4 lakh was already withdrawn before the account was identified. The third cheque was presented at a Bank of Baroda account for clearance.
“Police teams have been dispatched to Lucknow and Mumbai to crack the case,” Ayodhya DIG Deepak Kumar told the newspaper.