Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Mar 6: Three employees of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Bank have been placed under suspension and booked by Police for siphoning off over Rs 2.37 crore from the bank branch in Shastri Market Amritsar, where they were posted.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the fraud came to light when the Branch Manager conducted a surprise checking of cash and found the money missing.
The accused bank employees, who have been placed under suspension and booked by Police, were identified as Sunil Khajuria (Cash Manager), Rakesh Kumar Bakshi and Amit Gupta, both Assistant Cashier of the bank.
As per the Police complaint, the branch Head Manger Subhash Chander did surprise checking of cash in the strong room on February 17 and found Rs 2.37 crore missing from cash. After the Branch Manager reported the matter to the higher bank authorities at Zonal Office in Kathua and Cluster Head Office in Mohali, a formal complaint in this connection was lodged by Iftikhar Abdula Sofi, Cluster Head, J&K Bank, Mohali at the Kotwali Police Station.
Sources said that the branch Head Manager had initially found Rs 2.04 crore missing from cash and when he informed about the same to zonal office in Kathua and to Cluster Head in Mohali, Cluster Head Sofi along with his team reached the bank and counted the cash again. This time, the team found Rs 2.37 crore missing instead of Rs 2.04 crore.
During internal investigation and questioning of the bank branch employees, accused Rakesh Kumar Bakshi and Amit Gupta admitted that they had bungled the amount. They also returned some amount on different dates.
Taking serious cognizance of the matter, the bank authorities placed Sunil Khajuria, Rakesh Kumar Bakshi and Amit Gupta under suspension and also lodged a complaint in the Police Station.
A case under Sections 420 (Cheating), 406 (Criminal breach of trust) and 34 (Common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the trio and further investigation was in progress. However, no arrest has been made so far.
Sources said that the cash siphoned off from the strong room was in the form of coins and kept in bags. The number of bags was huge and the bank had not counted the same. Taking advantage of this, the accused employees were stealing the coins for the last around two years and the matter came to light only when the Branch Manager conducted inspection of the strong room.
Sources said this is apparently for the first time that such huge cash has been siphoned off from strong room of the J&K Bank.
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