CID arrests man for duping cooperative banks

In a major breakthrough, the Criminal Investigation (CID) arrested the kingpin of the racket that had duped different co-operative banks of around Rs 100 crore late night on Saturday.

A senior CID officer said the accused Debanjan Roy, a resident of Dum Dum, was remanded in police custody when produced before the Bankura District Court.

The CID had initiated a probe into the allegation of Bankura District Central Cooperative Bank that the accused had duped the bank of Rs 15.2 crore which he had taken to buy bonds of different nationalised banks.

Debanjan being a "sharp and well-educated person" did not have much difficulty in convincing the officials of the cooperative banks to rely on him and had managed to make them believe that he could buy bonds of nationalised banks by his tall talks.

He had chalked out the plan and created fake documents posing as the owner of a firm and told the bank officials that he would buy bonds of nationalised banks for the cooperative banks.

Initially, officials of the bank didn't understand that they were getting duped. Bankura District Central Cooperative bank officials were the first to understand that the person was cheating them when he had failed to provide some documents asked by the bank authorities.

The cooperative bank authorities did not allow him to leave their bank until the man had managed to give them those relevant documents. He somehow managed to come out of the bank after assuring the officials that he would give them all documents within a day. But he did not return. The bank authorities lodged a complaint with the local police station.

The bank authorities lodged a complaint with the local police station.

After understanding that the accused had duped Bankura District Central Cooperative Bank, officials of the other banks including Sheorafuli-Baidyabati Cooperative Bank and East Midnapore Bolageria Cooperative Bank lodged similar complaints with the police.

The case was later taken up by the CID when it was found that he had duped many other cooperative banks.

The investigating officers are trying to find others who were involved with Debanjan in the crime.