The Crime Investigation Department (CID) police will also conduct probe into the alleged fraud attempt in Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) besides the ACB.
“As the nature of the case is a ‘white collar offence’ and related to other States, the CID sleuths have been entrusted with the task of investigating the fake cheques case. The economic offences wing (EOW) will probe the sensational case,” CID Additional Director-General P.V. Sunil Kumar told The Hindu on Monday.
Miscreants maid an attempt to withdraw about ₹112 crore from CMRF by depositing three fake cheques in different banks located at Mangalore, West Bengal and Delhi, a few days ago. The fraud attempt was detected when officers of the concerned branches verified the genuineness of the cheques with Velagapudi and Vijayawada branch officers, who confirmed that the cheques were fake.
Investigation officers suspect that the ‘fake cheques’ issue may not be the first case and similar incidents might have happened earlier.
“Normally, grant from CMRF will be made to individuals in health and other emergencies. But in this case, the account holders produced the cheques for about ₹112 crore disbursed to different firms of various States,” an investigation officer said.
Employees questioned
Meanwhile, the Thullur police visited the AP Secretariat and questioned the personnel of the Revenue Department and banks on the fraud attempt.“We visited the bank and asked the executives on when and how they got the information on the fake cheques, produced in other branches. Similarly, we questioned the officers of the concerned wing at the Secretariat,” said Thullur Deputy Superintendent of Police Y. Srinivas Reddy.
