Victim knew accused for past eight years and even lent Rs 5 lakh to him
PANCHKULA : The local police on Friday booked four people, including bank manager of ICICI Bank, Manimajra branch, Arun Saluja, for cheating a retired Colonel of Rs 15 lakh.
Col Dilbag Singh Pannu (retd), 76, a resident of Sector 4 of Mansa Devi Complex (MDC), Panchkula, had a savings account in the Manimajra branch of ICICI bank.
The victim had known Saluja for eight years as the latter used to help him for his bank-related work. As the familiarity increased over the years, Saluja on various instances gave Pannu the comfort of just signing his cheques while he proceeded to fill the other details.
In the past, Saluja had also asked Pannu not to come to the bank as he will get Pannu‘s cheques collected from home and complete the transaction as needed. Such service, Saluja had claimed, was being provided by the bank to its deserving customers. On April 15, Pannu received around Rs 10 lakh on the maturity of his life insurance policy. Saluja advised him to invest it in the bank’s short-term investment scheme.
Saluja, accompanied by his wife Preeti Saluja, collected the cheques worth Rs 10 lakh from Pannu’s residence on April 19. On the same day, Pannu also lent Rs 5 lakh to Saluja as a loan. In return, Saluja gave Pannu two predated cheques of Rs 2.5 lakh each, signed on the name his mother and wife. When Pannu checked his account on July 15, he did not find the amount of Rs 10 lakh. On July 17, when Pannu visited the bank branch, he was told that Saluja was on leave since July 14.
Pannu later found out that two cheques which Saluja collected from him were allegedly transferred to the account of a Chandigarh-based man Amit Sharma, who was ‘hand-in-glove’ with Saluja. The two predated cheques of Rs 5 lakh had also allegedly bounced. Pannu also visited Saluja’s residence where his wife Preeti told him that Saluja has been missing.
Police have booked Saluja’s wife Preeti, his mother Sudesh and Amit Sharma on the charges of cheating at Mansa Devi police station in Panchkula.