The Angamaly police have arrested a man in a case of alleged cheating and forgery running into ₹55 crore at the Urban Cooperative Society, Angamaly.
The arrested is Shiju, 45, of Angamaly. He was serving as the accountant of the Society. The arrest was made in a case registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Joint Registrar General, Cooperative department, with District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena.
According to the first information report (FIR) registered by the Angamaly police, the alleged forgery and resultant cheating had been taking place since July 7, 2002. Loans were sanctioned on forged applications as well as applications submitted without requisite documents even in the name of non-members, the FIR said.
The investigation involves verification of a number of documents. The police had registered cases against 14 governing committee members and six employees, both past and present, of the Society governed by the Congress party.
The accused were booked under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant), 417 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable, security, will etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.
Besides, Sections 13 (1)(a) (a public servant committing the offence of criminal misconduct by habitually accepting or obtaining or agreeing to accept or attempts to obtain from any person for himself or for any other person any gratification other than legal remuneration as a motive or reward) and 13 (2) (Any public servant who commits criminal misconduct shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than one year but which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine) of the Prevention of Corruption Act have been invoked.
The matter came to light after many members began getting notices from the Society asking to repay loans taken in their names but about which they had no clue. In one instance, seven members of a family received notices asking them to repay ₹25 lakh each towards loans they had never taken.
