Crime Branch Chargesheets Accused in Separate Bank, Insurance Fraud Cases in J&K

Srinagar/Jammu, Aug 1 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch Kashmir has filed a chargesheet in a case involving the embezzlement of Rs 3.11 crore from the Central Co-operative Bank, officials said on Saturday. The chargesheet has been submitted to the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Handwara under Sections 420, 468, 471, and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code. These sections pertain to offences including cheating, forgery, the use of forged documents, and criminal conspiracy, officials added. They said the investigation was undertaken based on a written communication received from the then registrar of co-operative societies, J-K, alleging large-scale financial irregularities and embezzlement in various branches of the Central Co-operative Bank in Baramulla. During the investigation, it was established that the then branch manager of the Langate Branch, acting in connivance with other accused, fraudulently sanctioned fictitious loans and permitted overdrafts far in excess of his delegated financial authority, leading to the misappropriation of approximately Rs 3.11 crore of the bank’s funds, they said. The investigation disclosed that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy to facilitate these fraudulent transactions, thereby causing substantial wrongful loss to the bank, officials said. The allegations were substantiated during the investigation, and accordingly, the chargesheet has been presented before the competent court for judicial adjudication, they added. The accused chargesheeted in the case are Ghulam Mohd Beigh (retired branch manager), a resident of Kenyal Tarthpora, Handwara, and Abdul Hamid Gojrii (cashier-cum-clerk), a resident of Gund Karim Khan, Rafiabad. In a separate case, the Crime Branch on Saturday also filed a chargesheet against a former employee of an insurance company for fraudulently surrendering an insurance policy using forged documents. The fraud resulted in the diversion of more than Rs 10.75 lakh into a fake bank account in Jammu over 13 years ago. The accused, identified as Parul Sharma, a former employee of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, was chargesheeted by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in the court of the 3rd Additional Munsiff Judge, Jammu, in a case registered in 2013 under various sections of the Ranbir Penal Code, a crime branch spokesperson said. He said the case arose from a complaint by a branch in-charge of the company, alleging that Sharma fraudulently surrendered a policy belonging to a client using forged documents and redirected Rs 10,75,742.95 into a fraudulent SBI account. Similar attempts were allegedly made in respect of two other policies, the spokesman said. Accordingly, an FIR was initially registered at Gandhi Nagar police station in Jammu and was later transferred to the crime branch for in-depth investigation. During the investigation, records from SBI and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company revealed that the accused fraudulently obtained duplicate policy documents, forged surrender papers and opened a fake SBI account in the genuine policyholder’s name using forged documents, the spokesman said. He said the surrendered policy amount of over Rs 10.75 lakh was subsequently transferred to the said account through NEFT. Witness statements, documentary evidence and FSL examination established the accused’s role in opening the fraudulent account and executing the fraudulent surrender, causing wrongful loss to ICICI Prudential and the policyholder and corresponding wrongful gain to himself, he said.