The Gomtinagar police in Lucknow arrested a former bank manager on Saturday for his involvement in a major fraud case. The accused, Alok Pandey, who was the manager of the Gomtinagar branch of Indian Mercantile Bank, is accused of activating 15 dormant accounts and extorting Rs 16.93 lakh.
The case was initially filed by Vinay Bhutani, Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the bank’s Gomtinagar branch, on April 16, 2021. In connection with the fraud, the police had already arrested the bank’s IT officer, Mohd. Irfan, three months ago.
According to Inspector Rajesh Tripathi, the arrest was made at the accused’s residence in River Bank Colony, Wazirganj. Alok Pandey had been working as the manager at the Gomtinagar branch when the fraud occurred.
In 2021, Sunil Kumar Srivastava, another employee of the bank, took medical leave. During his absence, Pandey took advantage of the situation, using Sunil’s user ID to handle the work. During this period, four checkbooks of 100 pages each from the Gomtinagar branch and 10 checkbooks of 25 pages each from the Cantt branch went missing.
The investigation, led by Additional Inspector Vinod Tiwari, revealed that Pandey had activated three dormant accounts from the Cantt branch and 12 dormant accounts from the Gomtinagar branch. This was done using Sunil Kumar’s user ID with the assistance of IT officer Mohd. Irfan.
To hide the fraud, Irfan disabled the One Time Password (OTP) feature for a few days, citing technical issues. This prevented the account holders from receiving alerts about the unauthorized activities.
Pandey tried to withdraw Rs 30 lakh from the activated accounts by forging the signatures of the account holders. However, only Rs 16.93 lakh was successfully withdrawn. He then opened two bank accounts under the name of Harish Kumar at Aryavart Bank’s Aliganj branch and transferred the stolen amount into them.
Following the discovery, authorities launched an investigation into the matter. Although two other bank officers, Arun Choubey and Puran Singh Negi, were initially implicated, their involvement was later ruled out, and their names were cleared after further investigation.
The case highlights the risks involved with dormant accounts, which are inactive after two years of no transactions. While active accounts allow deposits, withdrawals, and digital transactions, dormant accounts do not allow any such activity until reactivated by the account holder.
