FEROZEPUR – An illiterate rural woman’s bank account was misused to transact Rs 15 crore over a period of four years without her knowledge. The woman only came to know about it after receiving summons from the income-tax (I-T) department six months ago, following which she filed a police complaint and a probe is underway.
In 2012, a woman manager of a private insurance company took Rs 6,700 from Niranjan Kaur, 71, a native of Basti Ranga Singh Wali village under Zira sub-division of Ferozepur district, and got her an account opened with a private bank at Faridkot, police sources said. The idea was that the bank account will facilitate insurance cover for Niranjan. Later, the insurance company refused to insure Niranjan and the manager returned her Rs 6,700, said sources.
“The manager allegedly replaced Niranjan’s photograph with her own on the pass book and kept operating it. Beside a one-time transaction of Rs 1.5 crore in the name of Niranjan, the debit and credit entries in the account total Rs 15 crore in four years,” sources said.
About six months ago, the Ludhiana office of the income tax department issued summons to Niranjan to appear before it in connection with the transactions. Niranjan consulted people to know what the matter was and then filed a complaint with the then Ferozepur SSP, who marked a probe to the anti-fraud cell.
Ferozepur SSP Ravinder Kumar Bakshi, expressed ignorance about the matter, but assured to look into it. He has assigned the probe to the Zira DSP.
“The bank account couldn’t have been misused for making transactions of such large sums without the connivance of the bank officials. So, we will probe the case from all angles and soon the guilty will be taken to task,” said the SSP.
As per the police probe, one of other four bank accounts from where money was transferred to or from Niranjan’s account was found to be fake and holders of other three accounts did not join the probe.
