New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) Two former bank employees were arrested for allegedly cheating a number of insurance policy holders on the pretext of reviving their policy accounts which were inactive due to non-payment of premium instalments, police said Thursday.
The arrested have been identified as Ravi Kumar (21), a graduate, and his associate Vinish (27). They were apprehended from near IIPM college in south Delhi Wednesday following investigations into a complaint filed by Mahabir Singh that he was cheated by two youths.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Chhaya Sharma said during questioning the accused revealed their involvement in more than 50 cheating cases. “The arrested have cheated people to the tune of more than Rs.15 lakh, which they spent on gambling,” said Sharma.
Sharma said the accused allegedly used to steal data of Kotak Mahindra Bank where they had worked earlier and cheated customers on the pretext of reviving their policy accounts which were inactive due to non-payment of installments.
In December last year Singh’s insurance policy was closed due to non-payment of installments. Kumar approached Singh and convinced him to sign documents using a magic pen whose ink evaporates after some time so that the policy could be revived.
Singh handed over three signed cheques for Rs.45,000, Rs.3,000 and another cancelled cheque for account verification to the person and received the photocopy of the same. “Kumar remained in contact for 3 to 4 days and then went underground. His mobile phone was also found switched off,” said Sharma.
“When Singh checked his account balance, he found that the two cheques issued by him were debited and credited in the accounts of Ravi Kumar and Dinesh Kumar,” Sharma said.
The duo told police that they knew each other for the last two years as they were working with the Kotak Mahindra Bank and knew the loopholes of the system of the bank.
“In order to earn fast bucks and to multiply the same through gambling, they hatched a conspiracy and stole data from the bank and started calling the potential customers from mobile numbers, obtained on fictitious IDs to revive their policies, closed due to non-payment of installments,” added the official.
According to the official once the appointment is fixed, they used to visit the customer at home or office. Once the amount is filled using magic pen, they used to get the signature of victim on the cheque from original pen and leave.
“After that they used to fill another amount in the cheque by erasing the original amount filled by magic pen and credit the same in their accounts,” added Sharma.
