The CBI has charge-sheeted a bank officer and his accomplice whose greed for online gaming lured them to allegedly embezzle over Rs 55 crore from various accounts of a public sector bank here.
The agency alleged that accused officer Bedanshu Shekhar Mishra and his accomplice Shailesh Kumar Jaiswal committed forgery in Punjab & Sind Bank, where Mishra was employed, to channel funds from various bank accounts into different betting games online, officials said.
Mishra was posted at the North Campus branch of Punjab & Sind Bank at Khalsa College of Delhi University from June 28, 2021.
In his statement during a bank enquiry, Mishra admitted that he used banking IDs (identities) of colleagues to make illegal transfers for online gaming bids, they said.
His statement was recorded during the enquiry after the bank noticed irregularities, forgery, siphoning and misappropriation of funds in various accounts such as RTGS, Inward Parking Account amongst Deposits Customers, primarily of Khalsa College.
The CBI probe revealed that Mishra was found to have “illegally and without any authority” encashed 32 fixed deposits receipts belonging to Khalsa College, maintained at the bank, amounting to Rs 48.76 crore, while also siphoning Rs 6.74 crore from various Mudra Loan accounts, they said. “During the investigation aforesaid original FDRs are said to have been seized from the Principal of Khalsa College, Jaswinder Singh, out of which 12 FDRs were found to be issued in the name of the Principal, SGTB Khalsa College and rest in the name of student fund, SGTB Khalsa College,” the CBI has alleged.
Mishra used the official IDs allotted to the officer of Khalsa College Branch for transferring the funds into 29 different bank accounts without any supporting vouchers, according to the CBI findings.
“It is further alleged that...Mishra along with an unknown person has carried out these unauthorised forgery and fraudulent transactions by using system ID’s of other staff members without their authorities,” the chargesheet revealed.
Mishra has a penchant for online games such as Monopoly and CrazyTimes offered on the web site “Goa247.Live,” registered in Curacao in the Caribbean and managed in India by individuals based in Dubai, the probe has revealed.
Between May 12 and September 14 in 2022, Mishra regularly played online games and transferred the liquidated amount of the FDRs, to the tune of Rs 10.81 crore, in the four accounts provided by the gaming website, the agency alleged in the charge-sheet.