Ex-govt official among six held in cheque forgery scam

A retired government official is among six people arrested for forging cheques in a scam that runs into several crores of rupees.

Vidhana Soudha police arrested retired public servant G S Sripad, his son Ananda Thirtha, Harish and history-sheeters Prashanth, Prathap and Venkatesh. Police said efforts were on to capture the kingpin, Naveen, and his associate Rajesh Shetty who are absconding.

After his retirement, Sripad, a resident of Thyagarajanagar, was collecting cheques from people for clearance on a commission basis.

Soon, more people took his help in encashing the cheques. His son Ananda Thirtha, working for a private firm, was helping him with the service.

One of the suspects, Harish, gave Anand a cheque from AKCT Chidambaram Cotton Mill Pvt Ltd and asked him to encash it for a commission. Anand passed on the cheque to Sripad who drew the amount from the SBI’s Vidhana Soudha branch.

While the original amount on the cheque was Rs 57,750, it was changed to Rs 5,77,500. When Sripad applied for clearance, bank manager Ashok Ramamurthy realised it was forged and filed a complaint with the Vidhana Soudha police.

Prashanth, Prathap, Venkatesh and Naveen met each other at the Parappana Agrahara central prison and ganged up after coming out on bail. The four then began forging cheques. Naveen, the kingpin, had the knowledge of banking and how to forge cheques flawlessly. Police said he brought the others into the crime.

Having learnt that several companies were sending their cheques by courier, the accused would talk to the courier boys, divert their attention and steal the cheques.

They would then forge the cheques and apply for clearance.