Doctor loses Rs 20 Lakh in cheque fraud

KOLKATA: A renowned doctor has lost around Rs 20 lakh to fraudsters who reportedly forged his signature on a fake cheque and siphoned off the amount. Besides, a trader from Ballygunge Circular Road was conned out of Rs 1.2 lakh when she ended up calling a scamster, whose number was listed as that of a bank official on the internet.

The first victim, Prashanta Kumar Ganguly, a retired head of the department of neuromedicine at Chittaranjan National Medical College and a resident of Netaji Nagar, said he learnt about the fraud on November 20, when he received a text on his mobile, alerting that Rs 20 lakh from his account at a nationalized bank had been transferred to another account at another nationalized bank. Ganguly said he had been operating his account at its Regent Park branch for the past four decades. On receiving the text alert, Ganguly approached the bank and asked for the cheque number used to make the transfer. He was shocked to find that the cheque with the same number was with him in his cheque book, the police said. When he produced the cheque book before bank officials, they asked him to contact the police.

“It appears there was a lapse on the part of the bank. First, they did not contact the customer before such a high transaction and seek his approval. Secondly, the transaction was approved during recess hours,” an investigating officer said.

The trader from Ballygunge Circular Road, Masum Aggarwal, claimed she wanted to know the closing time of her bank on November 17 and dialled a number she got on the internet, listed as that of a bank official. But the number reportedly belonged to the accused, who learnt details of her account and siphoned off Rs 1.2 lakh, said the Ballygunge police.