Three held
The Soro police on Tuesday busted an inter-state bank fraud racket while arresting three persons on the charge of making bank forgeries.
The arrested were identified as Jagannath Behera of Dhamnagar in Bhadrak district, Sougat Dhar of Tarapali under the Srirampur police station in Hoogly district and Gobind Balmiki of Azimabad under the Ziaganj police station in Murshibadbad district. All are in the 30-35 age group.
The police seized eight mobile phones, 24 SIM cards and bank statements of several depositors belonging to Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand.
Regarding their modes operandi, police said the trio used to identify themselves as bank agents who could facilitate bank depositors to avail loans at cheaper interest rates.
The three were caught while they had gone to a private bank’s Bidu branch to encash a cheque belonging to one Sachindra Nayak of Dahisada of Soro.
They had taken the cheque from Nayak assuring him that they would facilitate him to avail loan at 7 per cent interest for his poultry farm. Meanwhile, Nayak suspected them and informed the bank about their activities.
While they came to present the cheque, the bank staffs detained them and informed the police. “The accused were forwarded to court after a case of forgery and cheating case was registered against them. They were running a fraud syndicate,” SDPO PC Badjena said.