The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested five individuals, including a J&K Bank officer, in connection with a multi-crore loan scam. The accused were involved in a fraudulent scheme that caused a loss of approximately Rs 5 crore to the bank. The arrests were made on Tuesday, and the investigation is still ongoing.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Jatinder Singh, a former J&K Bank Manager, Scale-II at the Rajouri branch, and Mohammad Kabir, Mohammad Zafeer Khan, Zafar Iqbal from Poonch, and Mohammad Shakeel from Rajouri. They were accused of altering account details, issuing fake salary certificates and confirmation letters, and fraudulently obtaining personal loans, cash credit loans, and car loans by pretending to be government employees.
According to the complaint filed by the bank, Saleem Yousuf Bhatti, a contractual employee with the IWMP Poonch, along with others, reactivated inactive accounts of the Watershed Committee at the Lassana and Surankote branches of J&K Bank. The accused managed to open fraudulent government accounts at the Mendhar and Bus Stand Mendhar branches as well, using fake authority letters to instruct the bank to disburse salaries into the individual accounts.
The fraudsters used various methods to deposit money into these accounts and manipulated the system to obtain loans by presenting themselves as government employees. As a result, they were able to disburse loans worth approximately Rs 5 crore, leading to significant financial losses for the bank.
The investigation is continuing under FIR No. 86/2023, which includes charges under various sections of the IPC (419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471) and the Prevention of Corruption Act (Sections 7 and 13). Benam Tosh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Crime Jammu, confirmed the arrests and stated that the probe is still active.
