SBI Branch Manager and Employees Arrested for Embezzling Funds from Customer’s Accounts in Chhattisgarh
A case of money embezzlement involving the account of a deceased person has been uncovered at the Bodla branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Kabirdham district. The police began investigating after complaints emerged that money was being withdrawn not only from the account of a deceased woman but also from several other accounts at the branch.
According to Bodla DSP Akhilesh Kaushik, the complaint was filed by Ashok Hatile, who reported that his deceased grandmother, Deepa Ahirwar, had an account at the Bodla SBI branch. Ashok discovered that Rs 1.46 lakh had been withdrawn from her account without any authorization. Following the complaint, the police registered a case and launched an investigation.
The investigation revealed shocking details. It was found that the bank’s branch manager, along with his accomplices, was behind the fraud. The accused had accessed the Customer Information File (CIF) of another account holder and changed her name to Deepa Ahirwar. This allowed them to withdraw the money from her account. The CIF is a unique identification number assigned to each bank account holder.
The main accused in this case, Pratik Uike, was arrested two days ago and sent on remand. On Tuesday, the police arrested the branch manager, Sanjay Prakash Jarikar, along with employees Suraj Sharma and Nishant Kumar. They were presented in court, and several charges, including sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document), and 34 (common intention), have been added to the case.
In a separate case of fraud at the same branch, a woman named Mangali Bai filed a complaint stating that Rs 82,000 had been withdrawn from her account. During the investigation, it was discovered that employees Suraj Sharma and Nishant Kumar had reactivated Mangali Bai’s inactive account by creating a fake debit voucher for the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana. After reactivating the account, the accused withdrew Rs 80,000 in two separate transactions.
The police continue to investigate the full extent of the fraud, and more arrests may follow.
