4 men held for looting Rs 6 lakh from Ram Mandir Trust’s bank account

Four people were arrested for allegedly extracting Rs 6 lakh from the Ram Mandir Trust’s bank account in September.

Ayodhya DIG Deepak Kumar said, "The amount was transferred to Punjab National Bank in Maharashtra from State Bank of India here using two cloned cheques worth Rs 2.5 lakh and 3.5 lakh with forged signatures of the trustees,"

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This scam has  been busted after a third cloned cheque of Rs 9.86 lakh was intercepted at an SBI clearing house in Lucknow. This cheque was presented in Bank of Baroda.

A senior bank official contacted Trust secretary Champat Rai to verify whether he had signed on the high-value cheque. The transaction was stopped in the nick of time when Rai confirmed he did not approve of any withdrawals and the account was seized.

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An FIR was lodged at the Ayodhya Kotwali in this case on September 10.

The Ayodhya police has now arrested four accused, the residents of Bombay and Thane, however, the mastermind behind the fraud is still absconding.

The poice stated, "those who were arrested on Tuesday have been identified as Prashant Mahaval Shetty (40), a resident of Bombay, Vimal Lalla (40), Shankar Sitaram Gopale (54) and Sanjay Tejraj (35), all from Thane district of Maharashtra."

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Adding that they are still probing the case and the involvement of bank employees in this fraud cannot be ruled out.

-PTC News