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even people were arrested for swindling several companies and banks in Mumbai.
The Indian Express reported that the crime was discovered after a “prominent company’s cheques were returned by the Corporation Bank” in Worli, and the bank informed the company that the cheques for Rs 8.23 lakh (€11,287/$12,326) had already been “honoured”. A gang of seven were arrested for “allegedly cheating 150 companies and several banks” out of tens of thousands of rupees, which they were said to have done by duplicating cheques and then cashing them in using fake accounts.
Police discovered 550 cheques from 62 banks and 19 cheques books at a suspects’ residence along with 10 ATM cards, a laptop and two printers. The seven members of the gang were named as Aakash Raj Mulchandani; Aakash Harish Ratchandani; Kafi Abdul Shekh; Faisan Rahman Sheikh; Ashif Imam Khan; Kishore Kanoujia; and Chandrakant Nangre; who all lived locally and went under alias names.
The mastermind and leader was said to be Faizan Sheikh, who had been running the scam for three years and was also the Vice President of the “Human Rights Council of India”. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Pravin Padwal, said that after the company in Worli discovered the crime it “sent the company administration into a tizzy and they lodged a complaint against unidentified persons for cheating. During the probe, it came to light that the cheques were honoured in Lakshmi Vilas Bank in the account of one Sunilkumar Singh which had been created by submitting fake documents”.
After arresting Singh, they discovered his real name was Mulchandani, and a police official added that “during interrogation, he told the police that he was part of a racket which had been duping banks with forged cheques issued by various companies”. Police discovered that Nangre, who worked for a courier company, was reportedly photographing cheques sent by “companies to their clients” via courier, and would then send them to his accomplice Faizan using WhatsApp.
Police alleged that “Faizan used to forward it to Asif, who had duplicate cheques of the bank in his possession. He used to remove the account number from these cheques and put another number belonging to Sunilkumar […] with the help of [a] computer and printer. The duplicate cheque then used to be deposited in a bank and [en]cashed”. The case continues.