A fake cheque prepared with advanced printing technology allegedly helped one Chilakala Lal Basha of Anantapur withdraw ₹9.28 lakh at the State Bank of India Tapovanam branch here from the account of M.R. Mobiles Care, Hajipur branch in Gujarat.
According to reports, the main accused Lal Basha, 30, presented the cheque in person at the bank branch with a promise from one Shettypalle Nagireddy, 47, that he would be given 30% commission on the value of the cheque. The incident took place on July 26 at about 11.30 a.m. with bank branch making an RTGS transfer of ₹7.28 lakh to the account of a person known to Lal Basha.
He took away ₹1.99 lakh in cash, but within no time the Hajipur branch alerted the SBI branch here that the said cheque number was not issued at all and was with customer/ account holder. The Tapovan SBI branch immediately retracted the RTGS transfer amount, but lost ₹1.99 lakh.
Gujarat man involved
Following a complaint lodged with the police, the Anantapur IV Town police on Monday arrested Shettypalli Nagireddy and Lal Basha, said Deputy Superintendent of Police J. Venkata Rao. Upon interrogation it was found that they had got the cheque leaf from one Uday in Surat, Gujarat. A search is on for the third accused to understand as to how could they lay hands on the account details and signatures of authorised persons in M.R. Mobiles Care.
The police could recover ₹1.50 lakh from the two accused and the remaining was spent by them.
The DSP said the cheque leaf stood the UV Ray test at the bank for watermark, also physical water test, hence the bank officials did not suspect anything fishy about it.