Chandigarh, July 3
Cases related to bank frauds are on the rise with the UT police registering a case and receiving complaints of two such cases in the past 24 hours.

A city resident has alleged that money was withdrawn from his account without his information. The police said Avinash, a resident of New Indira Colony, Manimajra, complained that an unidentified person withdrew Rs 25,000 from his Indian Bank account. The money was withdrawn through ATM on April 6. The police has registered a case of cheating under Sections 420 (IPC), 66C, 66D and 72 (IT Act) at the Manimajra police station.

In another incident, Karun Saini of Sector 29 here reported to the police that an amount of Rs 35,000 was withdrawn from his Allahabad Bank account of the Sector 17 branch without his information.

The amount was withdrawn yesterday by a fraudster who introduced himself as Karun Saini to the bank and got issued a cheque book.

The bank authorities issued the cheque book to him without verifying the credentials of the person, who was in fact a fraud. The amount of Rs 35,000 was soon withdrawn from his bank account using forged signatures on the cheque.

Karun has submitted a complaint to the UT SSP but the police is yet to register any FIR or take action in the case.

In a similar incident, 73-year-old PN Khanna has allegedly been defrauded of Rs 28.16 lakh through a forged cheque. In his complaint to the police against the staff of Bank of India Sector 20 branch and Allahabad Bank Sector 11 branch in Panchkula, he stated that the money was withdrawn by Satnam Singh from his account illegally.

Khanna has an account with the Allahabad Bank in Sector 11, Panchkula, and he wanted to transfer an amount of Rs 8.16 lakh to his other account with the Bank of India. After the cheque was not cleared for four days, he enquired from the bank and was shocked to find that a cheque of Rs 28.16 lakh has been cleared in the account of Satnam Singh in the State Bank of India.

Further investigation revealed that the accused, Satnam, had recently opened his account and his address submitted with the bank was also found to be fake.

“I had not issued any cheque in the name of Satnam and have been requesting the staff of Allahabad Bank and the Bank of India about tampering of my cheque but to no avail,” he said.

A complaint has been submitted to the UT SSP in this regard.

Cyber Crime Cell issues advisory

The Cyber Crime Cell of the Chandigarh Police is receiving a huge number of complaints these days regarding fraudulent withdrawal of amount through ATMs in the tricity. As per the complaints, residents are being duped through a specific modus operandi, where the fraudster calls the gullible complainant posing as a bank manager or customer care employee and fetch all personal details of the account holder.

In view of rise in such incidents in Chandigarh, the police have issued an advisory to the public to strictly beware of such a stranger calling on telephone posing as a bank executive/manager. “People should avoid sharing account details with anyone at all costs,” said a police official.

Chandigarh, July 3
Top seed tennis players Shamita Yadav, Khushbeen Kaur, Dikshita Rana and Agrima Tewari cruised into the semi-finals of the girls’ (U-14) category during the ongoing LD Kapoor Memorial Total Tennis Championship at Total Tennis Academy, YMCA, Sector 11, here today. In the quarterfinals played today, Shamita Yadav defeated Arista Kanav (6-0), while Khushbeen Kaur beat Jyotsna Yadav 6-1. In another quarter-final, Dikshita Rana defeated Adita Vashisht (6-4), whereas Agrima Tewari beat Sakshi Singh (6-2).

In the pre-quarterfinals of the boys’ (U-14) event, Ravi Karan Singh defeated Jasmol Arora (7-5) and Neeraj Yashpaul overpowered Yajur Bansal (7-3) to move further in the championship.