Head cashier of Cooperative Bank accused of forgery held in Bhilwara

JAIPUR: A cooperative bank’s head cashier accused of financial fraud of ₹2.51 crore was arrested in Bhilwara district, police said on Monday.

The accused has been identified as Rajesh Kumar Sharma. “A complaint of fraud against Sharma was registered by the manager of a cooperative bank located at Nagauri Garden of Bhilwara at the Kotwali police station on January 1. In that complaint, the manager told that cashier Sharma was doing fraud in the accounts from last one and a half years and on the day of cash verification, he (Sharma) fled the city,” said Yogesh Yadav, superintendent of police (SP), Bhilwara.

Looking into the seriousness of the case, a special team was formed to catch the accused. After detailed investigation of Sharma’s call records, his relatives were traced. Later, a tip-off was received that Sharma is going to meet his advocate at Suwana road in Bhilwara district on January 13.

Acting on the information, Sharma was detained from Suwana road and later arrested. Explaining the modus operandi of Sharma, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Aditi Choudhary said two people had the responsibility of handling the cash – head cashier and account manager. “The theft of cash was done in the evening when the cash was counted – the head cashier would take out cash from bundles of notes but mention the correct amount in the register,” she said.

Police have not ruled out negligence on part of the account manager, as he never crosschecked the tally, which is part of his job.

During initial interrogation, Sharma accepted his crime and said that in order to make easy money, he used to steal money and invest in commodity related stocks or spend on betting. He told police officials that he thought once he would get profit, he would balance the account books. But continuously suffered l osses. Sharma al s o accepted that he was solely responsible for the fraud and no other officer helped him in the crime.

“Sharma also confessed that on December 31, 2018 he fled from Bhilwara on his bike to one of his relatives in Jaipur. But when he reached Nasirabad t own of Ajmer di s t r i ct , he dropped his bike at another relative’s house.

From there, he took a bus and left for Jaipur and was hiding at a relative’s place. More details would be revealed soon.” said Choudhary.

Sharma was arrested for the fraud. He was on Monday presented before a local court in Bhilwara, which sent him to fiveday police remand.