Bank official withdrew Rs 1.26 crore from dormant accounts; arrested

Jammu, Mar 16 (PTI) A bank official was arrested on Saturday for allegedly swindling over Rs 1.26 crore from dormant accounts over the past three years in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, police said.

The fraud by Ishwinder Singh Ranyal, Assistant Manager in J&K Bank Pouni branch, came to light last month when the accused withdrew an amount from an active account, prompting the account holder to lodge a complaint, Reasi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mohita Sharma said.

After receiving the complaint and sensing the gravity of the offence, a special team was constituted and Ranyal, a resident of Pouni, was finally arrested from Sainik Colony in Jammu this morning, the officer said.

“The criminal was evading arrest for the last one month. He wrongfully gained the amount causing loss of public money of worth Rs 126.34 lakh by way of cheating and falsification of accounts at J&K Bank Branch Pouni,” Sharma said.

She said the modus operandi of the accused officer involved discretely activating the dormant accounts and then illegally withdrawing deposited money.

“This practice was allegedly going on for the last three years and an amount of Rs 126.34 lakhs was illegally withdrawn by the accused assistant manager, who is a resident of Pouni,” the officer said.

A dormant account is an account that has had no financial activity for a long period of time, except for the posting of interest. After the dormancy period, dormant accounts become the unclaimed property of the state.