THE branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), along with the suspected mastermind, been arrested for allegedly embezzling the life savings amounting to Rs 5 crore of around 3,000 mathadi (headloaders) workers.
According to a police complaint filed by mathadi workers’ welfare board, Cloth Market & Shops Board, the fraudsters used a fake letterhead of the board to open an account in Vijaya Bank to siphon off the money. Similar letters, with board members’ forged signatures, were allegedly used to close the FD accounts a month after they were opened in March last year. The deposits tenure was to end in February next year, as reported in mumbai mirror.
During questioning, the Saki Naka IOB branch manager, Tribhuvan Singh Yadav, 45, revealed that he had connived with a 55-year-old, Mubarak Wahid Patel, to execute the fraud. Yadav was allegedly offered a commission to clear the forged documents on account closure. Patel is facing trial for perpetrating another bank fraud in Thane 2016. The Saki Naka police took him into custody from Thane Central Prison. “Patel is a homoeopathic doctor and had duped the Thane mathadi workers’ board using the same modus operandi,” said a police officer.
The police are now looking into the money trail.