Punjab & Sindh Bank: The CBI has charge-sheeted officer Bedanshu Shekhar Mishra and his accomplice Shailesh Kumar Jaiswal in Punjab & Sind Bank for committing fraud of more than Rs.55 crores. Mishra used the funds into various betting games online, as per CBI.
Bedanshu Shekhar Mishra was posted at the North Campus branch of Punjab & Sind Bank at Khalsa College of Delhi University since June 28, 2021. In a statement during bank enquiry, Mishra admitted to having used banking IDs of colleagues to make illegal transfers for online gaming purpose, the officials said.
In the CBI’s scrutiny, Mishra was found to have “illegally and without any authority” encashed 32 fix deposits belonging to Khalsa College, maintained at the bank, amounting to Rs 48.76 crore, while also siphoning Rs 6.74 crore from various Mudra Loan accounts, the officials said.
“During the investigation aforesaid original FDRs are said to have been seized from the Principal of Khalsa College, Jaswinder Singh, out of which 12 FDRs were found to be issued in the name of the Principal, SGTB Khalsa College and rest in the name of student fund, SGTB Khalsa College,” the CBI has alleged.
The CBI also found that Mishra used the official IDs allotted to the officer of Khalsa College Branch for transferring the funds into 29 different bank accounts.
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“It is revealed that no supporting vouchers regarding the aforesaid transfer were available in the record of the bank which confirms that all transactions were executed dishonestly and with mala fide intentions,” the CBI alleged.
Punjab & Sindh Bank: Online Gaming Fraud
Investigations showed that Mishra has a strong liking for online games such as Monopoly and CrazyTimes offered on the web site “Goa247.Live,” registered in Curacao in the Caribbean and managed in India by individuals based in Dubai.
Between May 12 and September 14 in 2022, Mishra regularly played online games and transferred the liquidated amount of the said FDR, to the tune of Rs 10.81 crore, in the four accounts provided by the gaming website, they said.
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While tracking the website, the CBI discovered that Dubai-based individuals Rajat Muralidhar, Nishanth, Rahul Kumar, A Rajath, and Nishanth were managing it in India.
“The aforesaid persons, namely Rahul Kumar and A Rajath, allegedly lured individual current account holders to offer their bank accounts in lieu of commission. These personal bank accounts were used to accept deposits from the customers of the gaming website,” the agency charge sheet alleged.
Mudra Accounts
The investigation into the scam revealed that Mishra sanctioned and opened 48 Mudra loan accounts during the period from June 2021 to November 2022, they said. Mishra’s alleged accomplice Jaiswal managed eight of these accounts through his relatives and employees.
Voice and text chats on WhatsApp showed that Mishra was in regular contact with accused Jaiswal. The contents of these conversations revealed that Jaiswal had asked Mishra to transfer the amount from the Mudra loan accounts to various current accounts.
It was discovered that Mishra carried out transactions in Mudra loan accounts on the direction of Jaiswal without any authority from the actual account holders.