Temple trust new target: Rs 20 lakh siphoned off as Khatu Shyam targeted by conmen

Cash-rich religious institutions are now on the radar of cybercriminals, conmen have now targeted Khatu Shyam temple trust in Sikar and have siphoned off Rs 20 lakh by cloning their two cheques. A similar style of crime was reported this week when a gang of conmen used cloned cheques to withdraw Rs 6 lakh from the bank account of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya.

According to the police, in the month of August two cheques was cloned and fake signatures of signatories were made to withdraw the money. The entire incident is also indicating security lapses or insiders involvement in the crime.

According to the police, the trust had a bank account in the central bank and first cheque of Rs 9.93 lakh was used on August 8 and another cheque of Rs 9.95 lakh was used on August 24. Both the cheques are cloned and the conmen have also done an exact copy of the signature.

The incident came to light after the accounts were checked by the officials of the trust and the matter was reported to the police. Khatu Shyam temple trust, committee member, Shayam Singh Chauhan has questioned the role of bank employees as on every transaction of over Rs 2 lakh was verified by the bank officials earlier but this time no verification was done.

Also read: https://www.the420.in/cloned-cheques-used-by-conmen-to-withdraw-rs-6-lakh-form-bank-account-of-shri-ram-janmabhoomi-teerth-kshetra-trust-money-was-kept-for-ram-temple-construction/

A similar case which took place in Ayodhya, two fake cheques were used to siphon off the money. The fraud was detected during the verification process of a third fake cheque, after which trust secretary Champat Rai filed an FIR with the Ayodhya police.

Police said the amount was withdrawn using cloned cheques of Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh. So far no arrest has been made yet.