Itanagar police arrest suspect in Rs 35 lakh cheque forgery case

Itanagar police, on May 20, arrested a suspect on charges of cheating and cheque forgery amounting to Rs 35 lakh. The arrested person has been identified as Koushik Das. The arrest follows a detailed investigation initiated on February 8, after Techi Niglo, a resident of Ganga village, lodged a complaint about an unauthorised transfer from his SBI bank account.

Upon receiving the complaint, a case was registered at Chimpu police station and assigned to sub-inspector SK Jha for investigation. Capital Superintendent of Police Rohit Rajbir Singh confirmed that investigative efforts led to the recovery and seizure of a missing cheque leaf from Niglo’s cheque book at the SBI Ganga branch.

Further evidence included a letter pad belonging to M/s Hita Enterprises, found in the suspect's possession, which he used to practice forging Niglo’s signature. "The investigation revealed that the fraudulent cheque was presented at the SBI Ganga branch, resulting in Rs 35 lakhs being credited to an HDFC account belonging to Tridip Saikia at the Biswanath Chariali branch," SP Singh stated.

Subsequently, portions of the funds were re-transferred to another SBI account, withdrawn in cash, and Rs. 20 lakh were transferred to M/s Kuntala Filling Station, owned by Rajib Das. Koushik Das, along with Tridip Saikia and Rajib Das, were identified as the prime suspects. Initial efforts to locate Koushik and Saikia were unsuccessful as they went into hiding, while Rajib Das failed to cooperate with the police despite obtaining interim bail from the High Court, Itanagar Permanent Bench.

To prevent further withdrawals, the beneficiary accounts containing Rs. 22 lakhs were debit-frozen, pending restoration to the complainant. The breakthrough came on May 18, when Koushik Das was tracked to Guwahati through technical surveillance.

A team led by SI Jha, under the supervision of Chimpu police station officer-in-charge Dwarka Gaadhi and Itanagar SDPO Kengo Dirchi, successfully arrested Koushik in the 6 Mile area of Guwahati. "Koushik has been remanded in police custody for further interrogation to identify and apprehend his accomplices," SP Singh added.