2 held for cheque cloning fraud

LUCKNOW: After the arrest of two persons in Gomti Nagar, Special Task Force (STF) sleuths on Wednesday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang involved in withdrawing money from bank accounts through cloned cheques.

The arrested persons -- Mohd Shamshad alias Shanu and Moinudeen Siddiqui alias Pappu of Lucknow -- were said to be the local link of the gang, which has a nationwide network. The duo was arrested from Mithaiwala crossing in Gomti Nagar on Tuesday night when they had come there to meet someone, said police.

“The mastermind behind the entire racket is still untraceable. He is believed to be operating from Mumbai and Delhi and has links in several banks. He used to get details of different bank account holders -- firms and companies having cash transactions in lakhs and crores,” said Manish Chand Sonker, DySP of STF while explaining the gang’s modus operandi.

He said the accused, with help from bank employees, would obtain a used cheque. And through this cheque, they would find out the account number, branch, sample signature and other details of the account holder. The accused would then open an account in the same bank using fake name and address and obtain passbook, cheque book and ATM card.

Later, the accused would remove the name of the account holder, account number and MICR code from their cheques with some chemical. They would then prepare cloned cheque bearing name of the account holder, account number and MICR code of the used cheque and withdraw money.

He said the gang had withdrawn money from different companies’ accounts in UP, West Bengal, Delhi, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. It was apparently operational for the last two years but the two accused had been working for them since November 2013, said Sonker.