Bank to return Rs 16.38 crore illegally withdrawn from Agartala civic body's account: CM Dr Saha

Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha said on Tuesday that a nationalised bank has assured that the entire Rs 16.38 crore, which was illegally withdrawn from the Agartala Municipal Corporation's (AMC) bank account using cloned cheques, will be returned to the civic body's account.

The Chief Minister, while replying to queries from MLAs in the Tripura Assembly, said there was no fault on the part of the AMC in the illegal withdrawal, as the original cheques remain in the civic body's custody.

After the issue was raised by Congress MLA Gopal Roy, Chief Minister Dr Saha, who also holds the Home Department portfolio, told the House that an inquiry was going on to unearth the actual wrongdoing and to nab the fraudsters.

"Through the six cloned cheques (counterfeit cheques), the fraudsters, said to be the outsider of the state, recently illegally withdrew more than Rs 16.38 crore from the AMC's bank account," the Chief Minister said.

One cashier of the United Commercial Bank (UCO) branch here was arrested last week.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties, including the CPI-M and the Congress, vehemently criticised the state government for the fraudulent activities and siphoning of huge amount and demanded a probe by any central agency.

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) urged Chief Minister Dr Saha to ensure a proper and impartial probe into the bank fraud amounting to Rs 16.38 crore.

While addressing the media, TPCC President Asish Kumar Saha said, "We urge the Chief Minister to ensure a proper and impartial probe into the fraud."

He also claimed the bank authority has cleared cheques amounting to Rs 16.38 crore after "proper verification of the signatures".

"The Rs 16.38 crore was disbursed to 78 bank accounts, and later the money was deposited into two accounts owned by two persons living in Delhi and Nagpur," Congress leader Saha said.

The Tripura government has recently formed a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the illegal withdrawal of Rs 16.38 crore from the AMC's bank account using cloned cheques.

A senior official had said that the west Tripura Additional Superintendent of Police (Urban), Dhruba Nath, would lead the SIT and submit a report to the District Superintendent of Police, Namit Pathak.

The other members of the SIT are Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Sadar Deba Prasad Roy; Inspector Rana Chatterjee, Officer-in-Charge of West Agartala Police Station; and investigation officer of the case and Sub-Inspector Ranjit Das.

Tripura Police started an investigation against "unidentified fraudsters" for illegally withdrawing the amount from the bank account of the AMC after the UCO Bank's Zonal Manager, Sanjib Roy, lodged a case at West Agartala police station.

He filed the complaint after it was noticed that more than Rs 16.38 crore was withdrawn from the AMC bank account through six cloned cheques recently.

The police officer said that, as per the initial investigation, the unidentified fraudsters, operating from Hyderabad, forged the signature of a former AMC officer to withdraw the money from the bank while the original cheques were lying with the civic body.