The Kalachowki police on Sunday arrested two persons on charges of allegedly attempting to dupe Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary from Sewri constituency. The accused person had allegedly tried to transfer Rs 78 lakh from Chaudhary's bank account by using a bogus cheque with his forged signature. The fraud came to light when the bank officials contacted Chaudhary to verify the authenticity of the cheque before processing it.
Those arrested are Ahmedabad resident Suketu Dave (47) and Kandivali resident Jayesh Shah (54). The accused have been arrested on charges of forgery and cheating.
According to the police, Chaudhary, a resident of Parel, has a savings account in the Lalbaug branch of a government bank, where his salary is credited. On May 11, when Chaudhary was busy in a meeting he had received a call from the bank which he could not receive and he asked his son Siddhesh to get in touch with the bank.
The bank official then informed Siddhesh that the bank’s Ahmedabad branch had received a cheque for Rs 78 lakh issued by the MLA for clearance and the bank wanted to verify if Chaudhary had issued the cheque. Siddhesh then informed the bank that the said cheque was not issued by them and requested the bank officials to not process the cheque, police said.
"The bank then emailed the images of the cheque to Siddhesh and on examining the cheque it was learnt that it had a bogus signature and the cheque itself was a counterfeit. Probe revealed that Dave was trying to realise the cheque in Ahmedabad. His questioning revealed that Shah had given him the cheque. The duo has been placed under arrest. We are questioning them as to how they got the cheque," said a police officer.
