BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday arrested two more persons for their alleged involvement in the Rs 9.6 crore Bank of India cheque cloning case.
The accused, Surjit Roy and Sameer Srivastav, proprietors of Roy Associates and SS Traders respectively, were apprehended from Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Thursday and were brought to Odisha on transit remand. The EOW had taken over the investigation of the case from Mayurbhanj police in 2024.
The chief manager of Bank of India’s Baripada branch had earlier lodged a complaint with Mayurbhanj police, alleging that illegal transactions amounting to over Rs 9 crore were made from the account of district mineral foundation trust of zilla parishad by producing four cheques on April 10 and April 18 in 2024.
Investigation revealed the fraudsters had produced forged/clone cheques and managed to transfer the money in two accounts of PT Constructions and Supplier and SK Enterprises. The amount was further transferred to various other bank accounts. Of the total amount, the investigators managed to blocked Rs 5 crore and had frozen Rs 13.56 lakh from 33 bank accounts.
“Roy and Srivastava had received Rs 45.19 lakh and Rs 39.19 lakh respectively from the other members of the gang. Earlier, four persons were arrested and further probe is continuing,” said an EOW officer. Apart from Odisha, the gang operated in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.