Turkawangam Bank fraud case: Police arrest branch manager

Shopian, Feb 6: In a major development in the case of fraudulent withdrawal of money from the bank accounts of customers at the Jammu and Kashmir Bank branch in Turkawangam area of Shopian, the police have expanded the scope of the investigation by arresting the branch manager of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and more arrests are expected soon in this regard.
The police have already registered an FIR regarding the illegal withdrawal of money from the bank accounts and now the arrest of the branch manager has been carried out and a large-scale investigation has been started in this branch regarding the illegal withdrawal of money for the past several years and more arrests are expected in this regard in the next few days.
The first case of bank fraud came to light when all the money was withdrawn from the bank account number 060004010002319 of the late Mohd Yousuf Shah of Tarkawangam, a day after his death. When the daughter of the deceased went to the bank and checked her late father’s account, it was found that all the money was withdrawn from Yusuf Shah’s bank account on January 14, 2019, a day after Yousuf Shah’s death on January 13, 2019. She complained about this matter to the bank officials, and it was revealed that Mudassir Hasan Shah, son of Master Hasan Shah,of Tarkawangam, had withdrawn this money through fraud and transferred this money to the bank accounts of his close relatives.
According to her near about Rs 5 lakh was embezzled from her father’s account and a complaint has already been registered in this regard at the Zainapora police station, but the accused has not been arrested yet. After this, in August 2024, lakhs of amount was found missing from the bank accounts of several elderly customers and women, including Abdul Ghani Lone, from the same bank branch.
When this news spread in the area, customers from Nule Poshawari, Mallah Dhera, Sugan, Turkawangam and other villages approached the bank and complained about the disappearance of money in their accounts. After which, Advocate Mohsin Nabi, a local lawyer of the area, had requested an investigation into the fraud case through an FIR at the Zainapora police station.
In August 2024, the bank initially recovered Rs 35 lakh from various accounts and an employee of the bank was suspended immediately. However, while leveling serious allegations against the bank’s branch manager and Mudasir Hassan Shah, the people of the area demanded a large-scale investigation into this financial fraud and said that if the first fraud in the Turkawangam branch in 2019 had been investigated on time, crores of rupees would not have disappeared from the accounts of customers in the branch.
The locals and the affected customers have demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in this fraud and have requested further investigation into the administrative matters of the bank. The case is now under the purview of the police and an FIR under number 104/2024 has already been registered in this regard at the Zainapora police station. The police investigation officer said that the matter is being investigated in detail so that all those involved in this fraud can be brought to justice.