The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch Jammu has registered a formal First Information Report (FIR) in connection with an organized banking fraud exceeding ₹68 lakh at the Jammu and Kashmir Grameen Bank. The criminal case was initiated after an internal vigilance and audit review by the financial institution uncovered a highly coordinated pattern of ghost loan accounts, unauthorized transaction debits, and intentional siphoning of public money. Law enforcement officials confirmed that the case has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
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The Kaluchak Branch Deception and Ghost Accounts
The investigative files reveal that the digital extraction operations ran across multiple banking hubs, with a major cluster located at the bank’s Kaluchak branch. According to the complaints filed by the bank’s Chief of Audits, Inspection, and Vigilance, branch operatives fraudulently opened and maintained 58 loan accounts under the guise of 15 distinct Joint Liability Groups (JLGs). At the same time, the syndicate fabricated two high-value cash credit limit accounts.
All of these credit facilities were systematically processed and operated without the knowledge or explicit consent of the nominal account holders, causing a direct suspected loss of approximately ₹42 lakh to the treasury. Audit trails further showed that nearly ₹12 lakh of the siphoned capital was routed into bank accounts maintained under the name of deceased senior manager Bhagwan Singh Saini, while the remaining balances were cleared via automated teller machines (ATMs). Additionally, a daily wage worker attached to the branch admitted to utilizing ₹2 lakh from one of the fraudulent JLG profiles for personal expenses, which was later recovered across two separate accounts.
Surankote Branch Violations and Falsified Closures
A parallel investigation was simultaneously launched into matching financial irregularities discovered at the bank’s Surankote branch. The second complaint officially implicates the Surankote branch head, Rohit Kumar, alongside secondary accomplices, over a series of completely unauthorized transaction sequences. Investigators established that the insiders engineered illegal debits and cash extractions totaling ₹7.37 lakh.
To further compound the financial damage, the branch management fraudulently sanctioned and withdrew an additional ₹19 lakh by inventing five fake loan profiles. Once the capital was siphoned out of the branch vault, the operatives manipulated the core banking registry to display the accounts as completely settled or closed. The Crime Branch spokesperson detailed that these premature closures were executed to artificially reconcile the branch’s daily cash positions and hide the internal shortages from visiting regional auditors.
State Enforcement Dragnet and Public Reporting Directives
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) for the Crime Branch (EOW) Jammu, Faisal Qureshi, confirmed that a comprehensive, in-depth investigation has been launched against Rohit Kumar and other bank employees to uncover the complete footprint of the insider network. Law enforcement teams are currently processing electronic log entries, verifying signature match summaries on physical loan applications, and tracing down additional staff members who may have provided administrative overrides to bypass mandatory double-blind approval protocols.
The SSP issued a strong public appeal urging banking consumers to perform regular profile checkups and instantly flag any unverified transactional deviations or phantom credit lines to the police to ensure timely legal containment.
