The police apprehended a railway employee, who drew cash from the accounts of a house wife by using a bank cheque.

Preliminary investigation of the incident, which took place on Tuesday, revealed that the accused had alleged links with the Jamtara gang and had cordial relations with a section of the bank employees.

The police investigations revealed that the accused identified as Kamalesh Marandi was allowed to use four consecutive pages of the cheque book issued in the name of housewife, Swagata Tiwari Mukherjee. The cheque book was in the custody of the bank and not yet taken by Mrs Mukhejee, a resident of Durgapur Steel City.

The victim never possessed any debit card (ATM card). She said, “I’ve never used any other mode of transaction for cash withdrawal other than the cheques. Incidentally, the cheque book was in the possession of the bank. Before I could collect them, a person took out Rs 1.5 lakh from my account.”

Not mere the debit cards, the Jamtara gang, as apprehended by the police, now has expanded its arms, penetrating deeper inside the banks purposely for forged withdrawal of hefty cash using the undelivered and unused cheque books lying in possession of the respective branches, as the cyber police officials learned.

Swagata lodged a complaint with the Cyber Police station here alleging ‘hands of the insiders’ behind the crime yesterday.

The CCTV footage exposed that the person, in presence of the banking staff, spoiled four cheque pages as he failed to match Swagata’s signature.

Sunil Sahoo, chief manager of the branch of the nationalised bank explained, “We usually allow payments when an account holder’s signature matches 80 per cent. Still, it’s ridiculous to see how the person made consecutive attempts! Besides the police investigation, our zonal office has also ordered an internal probe on this.”

Swagata”s cheque book was exhausted recently and she’d applied for a new book. The bank has been recently amalgamated with the Punjab National Bank. On Saturday, her new cheque book couldn’t be delivered at her address as she was out of station.

Biswajit Naskar, assistant commissioner (cyber crime) of police in Asansol said, “Bank frauds, using debit card passwords, were reported many times but it’s absolutely surprising that the fraudsters used other’s cheque books within the branch. We’ve begun a hunt for the suspect.”