A civil contractor from Koparkhairane has lodged a police complaint alleging that a construction firm proprietor had cheated him of ₹42 lakh by forging a three-year-old cheque.
The complainant, Munyaswami Nadar (56), had taken a loan of ₹2 lakh from S. Jagannathan in October 2016. When Mr. Jagannathan asked for a surety against the loan, Mr. Nadar handed Mr. Jagannathan an undated cheque with ₹2 lakh written only in numerical figure.
Over the period of time, Mr. Nadar and Mr. Jagannath had several dealings. Every time Mr. Nadar borrowed money, he would issue a cheque for the same amount to Mr. Jagannath as surety.
As per the complaint, during every repayment, though Mr. Jagannathan used to give back the ‘surety’ cheque most of the times, some of the cheques were still in his possession.
In January, Mr. Jagannathan approached Mr. Nadar and asked him for a loan of ₹5 lakh. Mr. Nadar told him that he was waiting for a client’s payment following which he would give him the loan.
On February 20, while Mr. Nadar was at his home town in Tamil Nadu, he asked one of his staffers to transfer ₹5 lakh to Mr. Jagannathan’s account.
But Mr. Nadar received a message in the evening that ₹42 lakh was withdrawn from his account. When Mr. Nadar contacted his bank, he learnt that the money was transferred to Mr. Jagannathan’s account.
On learning about the cheque number, Mr. Nadar learnt that it was the same cheque of ₹2 lakh which he had given to Mr. Jagannath in 2016 as surety to which the former had added the digit ‘4’ before the amount and encashed it. “We have registered a case of forgery and cheating. No arrests have been made as enquiries are on,” senior police inspector Suryakant Jagdale from Koparkhairane police station said.