Bank employee who duped customers arrested

AALO, Aug 30: The police here in West Siang district arrested Bikash Ranjan Hajong Ray, the deputy manager of the SBI branch here, on 29 August, in connection with two separate cases (No 62/19 u/s 409/477-A IPC, and No 70/19 u/s 12-B/403/409/34 IPC).
Ray, the main accused in the two cases, is a native of Hawakhana village in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district. He had been absconding and evading arrest.
A case had been registered against him at the police station here on 30 July, based on a written complaint lodged by one Yanya Koje (58), an employee at the general hospital here.
The complainant said that she had withdrawn Rs 40,000 from her savings account in the bank on 2 March. However, after a few days, when she updated her passbook, she found that Rs 4 lakhs had been debited from her account “and some cash correction of Rs 40,000 had been made.”
After several enquiries at the bank, it emerged that Ray, who was the accountant and cash officer of the bank’s branch, had illegally withdrawn the Rs 4 lakhs through a withdrawal voucher, without the victim’s knowledge. Koje then approached Ray and requested him to refund the money. Later, on 17 May, Rs 3,60,000 was credited to her account.
However, on 18 July, Ray withdrew the Rs 3,60,000 from her account, again without her knowledge.
On 23 July, when Koje went to the bank to enquire into the matter, she learnt that Ray had absconded without informing the bank authority, and that his whereabouts was not known.
The accused was also wanted in another similar case, based on a complaint lodged by one Markir Mayi (45) of Nyorak Rakte village, according to which, on 18 July, Ray illegally transferred Rs 2,20,000 from Mayi’s account without his knowledge.
Ray is currently in police remand for four days for further interrogation. (DIPRO)