By IANS,
Agartala : A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from Kolkata began a probe Wednesday about fake foreign demand drafts issued by a bank in Saudi Arabia, officials here said.
“A three member CBI team led by inspector Sanjoy Sen arrived here from Kolkata to investigate the fake foreign banks drafts scandal,” said Subrata Chakraborty, a senior Tripura police official.
In December last year, at least 59 people were accused of withdrawing Rs.28.05 million from various branches of nationalised and regional rural banks in Tripura using fake bank drafts issued by the Al-Razi Bank and Investment Corporation (ABIC) in Saudi Arabia.
“We have filed an FIR (with Agartala West Kotwali Police Station) after 59 people had withdrawn the cash through false bank drafts issued by ABIC,” said Himangshu Mandal, manager of Union Bank of India’s Agartala branch.
Police arrested 58 of the 59 people from different places of Tripura.
On Monday two more people, including a government employee, were also arrested for depositing similar fake foreign drafts in a bank branch in north Tripura.
“The Tripura government earlier requested the union home ministry to ask the CBI to investigate the fake foreign drafts case and the central government responded positively,” a senior home department official told IANS.
He said the Tripura police have also informed about the matter to the department of revenue intelligence to take up the issue.
According to the official, the bank authorities have also alerted their counterparts across the country about the scandal.
Police and bank officials, after studying the documents and collecting necessary information, confirmed that an international racket involving people in India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia was active.