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ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh police have arrested one Koushik Das on charges of cheating and cheque forgery amounting to Rs 35 lakhs, a senior police official said here.
The arrest follows a detailed investigation initiated on February 8, after one Techi Niglo, a resident of Ganga village, Itanagar, lodged a complaint regarding an unauthorised transfer from his SBI bank account, Capital superintendent of police (SP) Rohit Rajbir Singh said on Monday.
Upon receiving the complaint, a case was registered at Chimpu police station here and assigned to sub-inspector S K Jha for investigation.
The SP said that investigative efforts led to the recovery and seizure of a missing cheque leaf from the complainant’s cheque book at the SBI Ganga branch.
Further evidence included a letter pad belonging to M/s Hita Enterprises, found in Das’s possession, which he used to practice forging Niglo’s signature.
“The investigation revealed that the fraudulent cheque was presented at the SBI Ganga branch, resulting in Rs 35 lakhs being credited to an HDFC account belonging to Tridip Saikia at the Biswanath Chariali branch in Assam,” the SP said.
Subsequently, portions of the funds were re-transferred to another SBI account, withdrawn in cash, and Rs 20 lakhs were transferred to M/s Kuntala Filling Station, owned by one Rajib Das.
Koushik Das, Tridip Saikia, and Rajib Das were identified as the prime suspects. While efforts to locate Koushik and Saikia were initially unsuccessful as they went into hiding, Rajib failed to cooperate with the police despite getting an interim bail from the High Court, Itanagar Permanent Bench.
To prevent further withdrawals, the beneficiary accounts containing Rs 22 lakhs were debit-frozen, pending restoration to the complainant.
The breakthrough came on May 18, when Koushik Das was tracked to Guwahati through technical surveillance.
A team led by SI Jha, under the supervision of Chimpu police station officer-in-charge Dwarka Gaadhi and Itanagar SDPO Kengo Dirchi, successfully arrested Koushik from the Sixth Mile area of Guwahati.
“Koushik has been remanded in police custody for further interrogation to identify and apprehend his accomplices,” Singh added.
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