According to the officer in-charge of West Police Station, police received a complaint from the Dimapur branch of the ICICI Bank about a savings account showing unusual transaction patterns involving huge sums in a short period of time. The complaint was lodged on August 25.
Subsequent investigation led to the unearthing of a ‘bank account opening’ racket with strong links to the Nigerian SMS-online lottery scam. It was discovered that the man had opened as many as ten accounts at the Dimapur branches of the State bank of India, Union Bank and the Punjab National Bank using forged papers. The pass books and confidential access codes to the accounts were delivered to a suspected Nigerian national, the OC said.
The accounts were then used to route money to a ‘nostro account’ based in New York, USA. The holder of the destination account was said to be one Lyle Graham, whose real whereabouts could not be established. An amount of Rs. 4.57 lakhs was transferred to the ‘nostro account’ through the accounts opened in Dimapur. The OC said that all the illicit accounts were frozen after the arrest of Vitoka.
The OC further informed that one of the accounts had anomalous address entry, raising questions on the screening process employed by banks to open accounts. The address was entered as “Purana Bazar, Notun basti, Dimapur.”
The arrested was charged and booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sections 403 and 420.
Source: Morung Express
Post a Comment