Over a dozen duped, almost 80 crores scam: victims
KNB News Desk
Srinagar 18 December (KNB): Over a dozen families have been shattered after being duped by an alleged con man deceiving as a businessman, promising surprising dividends. The total amount that the con man has duped is around eighty crores, victims claim.
The victims told KNB that J&K Bank accounts of more than ’20 persons are involved and around 80 Crore rupees was fraudulently drawn by a scamster Mehraj ud Din Yatoo, an owner of R P Tourism Infrastructure and Private Limited, who is on the run.’
Victims claim that the rot seems deep and allege that they believe top officials of the Bank are involved in the scam.
One of the victims, Nisar Ahmad from Srinagar claimed that the loan was drawn from their accounts for several years. “Yatoo had duped his own close acquaintances also, mostly on the pretext of avoiding taxes and other things, which would prompt the victims to hand over their accounts to him for some time,” Ahmed claimed.
Some of the victims said they relied upon Yatoo as they knew him and was within their remit of familiarity.
“A CC account of nine lakhs rupees was running in my name which with the 2.5% of interest rate would be a further addition of 2.5 lakhs only. But that amount has turned into 1 crore and 75 lakhs rupees after I had entrusted my account to Mehraj ud Din Yatoo, whom I knew, to help him in getting money without coming across any hitch like taxes etc,” said Lateef, a victim.
The victims on whose accounts a money was drawn includes one of the persons with three children. “The children’s three student accounts were used to draw 1 crore rupees each by Yatoo. How were the student accounts used to draw such a big amount? It surely smells of other officials being involved in it,” said one of the victims from Srinagar.
Another victim, Fayaz, said that he was on good terms with Yatoo but he too was left with the burden of 30 lakhs, which he is struggling to pay, after he was taken to a bank by Yatoo and was asked to do some signatures on papers. He said in his and others cases the signatures used to be done after branch managers would also pass the process as a routine procedure, making the victims believe in it.
Victims also corroborated the fact that they were mostly told to do signatures on papers at the banks, which to their surprise resulted in drawing loans from their accounts. They also said that Mehraj ud Din Yatoo seemed to have connections
in the bank, which resulted in getting loans from others’ accounts without much hassle to the accused.
Most of them were notified by the banks that they had money to pay just some months ago, they claimed.
“He has been absconding since mid-2021,” Victims claim.
Facing bank calls now, the duped persons claim that such calls were never made when money was withdrawn from their accounts, and questioned the timing as well.
Victims further said banks are harassing them to pay the loan amount they cannot afford. “The Branch Manager last time told me to pay outstanding money and has no concern as to how I get it,” he claimed.
Police sources told KNB that the accused has an FIR registered against him in another case of fraud, and is absconding.
Sources inside the Bank claimed that the accounts are being checked and mostly single Bank branches have been used by the accused. (KNB)
The names of the victims have been changed