Arun Lata Sharma
Sitamarhi: Cyber criminals fraudulently siphoned off Rs 28.65 lakh from the account of Shree Laxmi Kishori College, Sitamarhi, a constituent unit of BRA Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, in North Bihar, in Sitamarhi Branch of Bank of Baroda (BoB), by using three clone cheques between January 3 and 19, 2022.
The fraud was detected when the hackers on January 21, 2022, tried to encash a fourth clone cheque unsuccessfully for a sum of Rs 4.76 lakh. But, the BoB’s Patna office got alert after first three heavy cash drawals. The fraud came to light when the bank staff physically visited the college for verification. The college principal Prof. Anil Kumar Sinha said that the cheque leaves bearing those numbers are in the college almirah and intact. An FIR has been lodged by him against the bank officials and the branch manager. The cheques were used for RTGS purposes.
The Branch Manager of the bank Ramesh Kumar, in his statement, said that the bank used to send SMS alert messages and only thereafter processed. The account bears the mobile number of the retired principal and her email ID. The bank has too lodged an FIR against four beneficiary account holders of different towns. Town police station, Sitamarhi, are looking into the papers and action would be taken soon.