The Tripura government has formed a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the illegal withdrawal of ₹16.38 crore from the Agartala Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) bank account through cloned cheques.
The SIT will be headed by the Additional Superintendent of Police (Urban), West Tripura district, and will submit its report to the Superintendent of Police, West Tripura, Namit Pathak. The other members of the team include SDPO Sadar Deba Prasad Roy, Inspector Rana Chatterjee, and Sub-Inspector Ranjit Das.
The case was registered after UCO Bank’s Zonal Manager, Sanjib Roy, lodged a complaint at West Agartala Police Station. He reported that six cloned cheques were used last week to withdraw ₹16.38 crore from AMC’s account.
Police officials said that preliminary investigation suggests the fraudsters forged the signature of a former AMC officer to carry out the withdrawal, while the original cheques remained in the custody of AMC officers. CCTV footage from UCO Bank’s main branch at Kaman Chowmuhani in Agartala has been collected to identify those who submitted the forged cheques.
AMC officials have requested UCO Bank to return the withdrawn amount, and the bank has agreed to do so.