Jammu, Dec 10: In J&K Bank fraud case, Economic Offences Wing of Crime Branch Jammu produced charge-sheet against four accused who had allegedly swindled Rs 5 crores from different branches of bank as loans of various nature, on the pretext of Government scheme under Integrated Water Management Programme meant for district Poonch.
The 4960 page preliminary charge-sheet was produced against four accused persons, including prime accused Saleem Yousaf Bhatti, son of Mohd Yousaf of Narol, Mendhar Poonch in the court of law in case FIR number 86/2023 U/S 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B/IPC P/S Crime Branch Jammu.
The prime accused & mastermind Saleem Yousaf Bhatti, who was previously working as a contractual based employee in the IWMP – a Central Govt sponsored scheme, executed his nefarious designs by misusing his position and misrepresentation of facts. The other co-accused arrested in the case are Mohd Altaf of Ari Mendhar, his wife Ruksana Tabassum and their daughter Zahida Parveen.
As per the case, Saleem Yousaf Bhatti and others had illegally activated the in-active accounts of Water Shed Committee at J&K Bank Branch Lassana, Surankote Poonch. Subsequently accused persons changed nomenclature of the accounts, fabricated fake salary certificates & confirmation letters to different non-existing employees and managed personal loans, cash credit loans and car loans etc in crores by presenting themselves as Government employees.
These accused also managed to open fraudulent Government accounts at J&K Bank Branch Office Mendhar and Branch office Bus Stand Mendhar. Accused firstly deposited money through different Banks/Branches in the accounts of water shed committee and the fake accounts opened by them, issued fake authority letters instructing the branches to disburse & credit the salaries in individual accounts which were later on projected as Government employees and thus they managed to obtain loan from different other branches of the bank thereby causing wrongful loss to the tune of approximately Rs 5 cores.
All these loans are now Non Performing Assets (NPA) of the J&K Bank.
Investigation of the case is in progress to identify and arrest other accused involved in the crime and other nexus in the case.
