`47L vanishes from acct of govt’s edu and sports dept

The Marine Drive police have booked four unidentified persons for illegally withdrawing Rs47 lakh from the Nariman Point bank accounts of the Maharashtra state’s Department of School Education and Sports through forged cheques. The complainant in the matter is Sunil Hanje, 57, from the department’s Mantralaya office.

As per the department’s internal inquiry, the transfer happened between March 2 and April 20 through 10 cheques bearing the same number. These cheques were not from the cheque books issued by the bank in the name of the department, sources said. A police officer said that the cheques had fake seals and signatures of the department and were deposited in four different accounts.

A police officer said that the names of the bank account holders in whose accounts this money was transferred are Namita Bagh, Pramod Singh, Tapan Kumar and Zeenat Khatoon. The police have filed an FIR against these four persons and their identities are being ascertained.

An FIR has been registered under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulent use of a forged document) and 34 (crime committed by more than one person) of the Indian Penal Code.

This is not the first time that money has been stolen from government accounts. Earlier, Rs67 lakh was siphoned from the accounts of the Tourism Department in the same way. Between February 13 and February 16, fake cheques were used to withdraw the amount from the department’s account in the Bank of Maharashtra. A case was registered in this regard on March 2. The modus operandi of both crimes is similar, and the police are conducting further investigation.