KARACHI, May 1: A gang of crooks, allegedly involved in defrauding the banks of millions of rupees, used unsuspecting jobseekers for withdrawal of money through forged cheques.
Sources in the Commercial Banks Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency said that at least half of a dozen jobseeking victims, mainly belonging to the upcountry, were already in jail after they were caught presenting forged cheques in different banks.
They said two prime suspects in the racket were arrested following the arrest of Fazil Khan, hailing from Swabi, who had withdrawn Rs400,000 from the account of the Textile International in the main branch of the National Bank.
The sources said the bank had encashed the cheque after obtaining the photocopy of Fazil’s national identity card on April 28. They said the forgery was detected when on the same day the proprietor of the Textile International, Abdul Wahid, contacted the bank to ascertain his balance.
He also informed the bank that the number on the forged cheque was identical to the one he had issued on March 5, 2002 for Rs30,000. The bank deputed a team to track down the presenter of the cheque, who apprehended Fazil at his house and later handed him over to the FIA.
Fazil told the investigators that he had been jobless for a long time. He said he had gone to the office of a private security agency where a man, identifying himself as Manzoor Hussain, approached him and offered him employment.
The officials said the FIA arrested one of the prime suspects, who identified himself as Manzoor Hussain, near Agha Khan Hospital on the lead given by Fazil.
They said the real name of the prime suspect was Mohammed Zahid Malik, who used to trap jobseekers to get the forged cheques encashed.
The sources said that later the investigation officer, Inspector Khalid Jamil, arrested Mohammed Zamarrud, who is believed to have been instrumental in the processing of the forged cheques. A blank cheque book and some blank sheets of the cheque book paper were also seized from Zamarrud, they said.
The sources said that earlier on April 14 the fraudsters deposited a forged cheque of the Civil Aviation Authority for Rs980,000 in the account of Col Saleem Ahmed Zafar, former vigilance chief of the PIA, in the NBP’s airport branch. Later on April 16, the forgers prepared a cheque of the colonel’s account for Rs850,000 and got it encashed through another presenter, Werkhameen Khan, who was trapped by suspect Zahid Malik, they said.
The sources said that on April 18 the crooks withdrew Rs125,000 from Col Saleem’s account through a forged cheque, presented by Werkhameen.
They said that on April 19 the two crooks gave Werkhameen Khan another forged cheque of the CAA for Rs1.465 million and asked him to deposit it in the account of Col Saleem.
Incidentally, the sources said, the balance in the CAA account was too short and the bank contacted the CAA, who denied having issued such a cheque. Werkhameen was arrested on April 21 when he turned up with a Rs465,000 cheque, and the crooks remained untraceable, they said.
The sources said Werkhameen, who was already in FIA custody on remand, immediately identified suspect Zahid Malik. They said Zahid had introduced himself as Mushtaq Ahmed to Werkhameen.
During the interrogation, the sources said, the two crooks disclosed that they had defrauded the NBP’s airport and income tax branches, the ABL’s Foreign Exchange branch, and the MCB’s Business Recorder, Site and West Wharf branches. The forgers also withdrew over Rs1.23 million from the account of the Sindh Sports Board, they said.
The sources quoted suspect Zamarrud as saying that he used to obtain forged cheques from Darra in the NWFP, from Lal Khan against Rs25,000.
However, the FIA investigators believe that the forged cheques were prepared here through computer technology.
The alleged crooks have been given in the FIA custody for 10 days for investigation and interrogation.
