Noida: Power department finds cheques, demand drafts from users diverted

NOIDA: The western UP wing of the state’s power department, PVVNL, has alleged that dues paid by consumers through cheques and demand drafts were not deposited in its account, at an ICICI Bank branch in Noida, and instead diverted to another bank.
Alleging a scam of Rs 1.27 crore, Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited has told police it had found that the cheques and demand drafts were instead deposited at a Punjab National Bank branch in Bulandshahr. PVVNL has its account in the Sector 50 branch of ICICI Bank.
An FIR has been filed against unnamed officials of the ICICI branch and the branch manager is among those who police have questioned. Police said the role of a private agency, tasked with submission of demand drafts in the bank, is also being probed. “Their involvement is being checked and it is possible that the bank account number was changed by these persons. They are being questioned,” a senior police officer said. TOI contacted a spokesperson for ICICI bank but did not receive a comment.
DCP (Noida) Sankalp Sharma said a list of 100 cheques and demand drafts was shared by PVVNL with the police. In each case, the money was deposited in the PNB account. “The total amount adds up to around Rs 1.27 crore. The (PNB) bank account is named after a person called R Sheikh. Prima facie, the documents based on which the bank account has been opened seem fake,” Sharma said.
The complaint, filed by the executive engineer (division 2) of PVVNL at the Sector 49 police station, says: “The cheques and demand drafts were taken by the authorised representative of the bank from the office of the electricity urban distribution division (EUDD) for clearing but despite verbal and personal meeting with the branch manager, the money from the cheques/drafts was not deposited in the respective bank account and was not even returned to the division (sic).”
Sharma said as many as 10 bank officials have been questioned so far. “The bank officials have said they informed PVVNL about the alleged transactions via email. This has to be confirmed,” the DCP said.
A senior power department official told TOI an internal inquiry was carried out and the transactions were checked by the power department officials, after which a complaint was filed with the police. “The customers are from different sections, including commercial, industrial and residential,” the PVVNL official said.
Dharmendra Sharma, station officer of Sector 49, said the FIR was lodged under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) against the bank officials.