Meteoric rise from bank peon to billionaire
Geoff Wijesinghe
Many of us have extraordinary intellect with a genius in a particular
field or sphere. In many cases, the genius in us is used for the benefit
of mankind. But, there are also a fair number described as evil geniuses
- parasites.
A very interesting case in point is that of an Indian, who through
his evil genius, rose from peon to be a billionaire in a short time
through the use of evil devices, which he picked up in double quick
time.
It has been described in the book titled Bank Robberies and Forgeries
by R.S. Beniwal.
"When the Charbagh branch of State Bank of India started reconciling
its accounts in February 1985, it found the difference to be of more
than Rs. 30,000,000. On top of it, many drafts issued in its favour were
also not traceable.
Officers of the Vigilance Branch of the bank could not find anything
and the whole thing was extremely perplexing.
They had to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of
Investigation. After intensive investigations for 20 days, the CBI team
was convinced that someone from the bank itself was involved. But, they
failed to find any clue that could lead to the culprit.
Fake names
The CBI detectives then started a thorough investigation into the
personal lives of each and every employee of the bank. They tried to
find out if any of them had accumulated wealth and assets
disproportionate to his known income.
The detectives finally found that the culprit was Raghunath Gaur, a
peon in the bank. He had obtained assistance from his wife Bina and
brother-in-law Mannalal Pandey in carrying out the fraud.
Raghunath used to take the mail from the Transport Nagar branch to
the head office of the bank.
During his work, he had come to fully understand the procedure of
clearing cheques.
First, he opened six or seven accounts under fake names in several
branches of the State Bank of India and obtained cheque book facility.
He also opened two accounts in the Aminabad branch of Oudh Cooperative
Bank.
He had no difficulty in finding people who signed on the account
opening forms as introducers.
Raghunath issued a cheque for Rs. 200,000 in favour of R.M. Gupta
from the Chowk branch of the State Bank of India. He then deposited the
cheque in the account of R.M. Gupta at the Aminabad branch of Oudh
Cooperative Bank, which sent it for clearing at the main branch of State
Bank of India. As the cheque reached there, the amount was credited to
Oudh Cooperative Bank.
CBI detectives
Then, the cheque was sent to the Chowk branch of State Bank of India
for payment.
Raghunath himself took the cheque and threw it away. As the cheque
did not reach the bank, it could not be ascertained if the above amount
was available in the account of person issuing the cheque. Next day, the
clearing house issued the credit advice slip to Oudh Cooperative Bank,
who credited the amount to the account of R.M. Gupta.
Raghunath immediately withdrew this amount.
Emboldened by his first success, he started indulging in the fraud
with vigour.
He took precaution to remove drafts of the same amount that were
issued in favour of State Bank of India.
So, there was no difference between credits and debits when the
accounts were tallied. From October 1983, Raghunath deposited 27 such
cheques in his two accounts at Oudh Cooperative Bank, defrauding
31,82,720 rupees.
He also cheated Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, United
Commercial Bank and several other banks in Lucknow in the same manner.
It was only when the accounts of the clearing house were tallied in
1985, that this huge fraud came to light.
The CBI detectives found that he possessed a deluxe bus, Piaggo
scooter, gold ornaments weighing half a kilogram, television,
refrigerator, two bungalows and a farm.
A sum of 20 lakhs of rupees was recovered from him. His fake accounts
in the banks were immediately sealed, and Raghunath was arrested on
December 11 and sent to prison.
Finally, he found himself in the same position, from which he started
on his journey of fraud and deception. How true it is that crime never
pays. |