J&K Bank official faces probe in dormant accounts fraud case; FIR filed 

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Police have noted a fraud in Pouni Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, where over Rs 1.26 crore in deposited in dormant accounts was taken by an officer of the bank with alleged cooperation from the former manager.

Though direct involvement of the ex-manager was not confirmed, both have been suspended while Police Station Pouni has filed a case FIR and initiated additional investigation.

According to Police, a case FIR number 10/2024, under section 409 IPC, has been registered at Police Station Pouni against accused namely Ishwinder Singh, Asst Manager, J&K Bank Pouni for making fraudulent debits from various inactive/deceased accounts amounting to the tune of Rs 126.34 lacs.

Quoting sources the Daily Excelsior reported that modus operandi of the accused officer involved discretely activating the dormant accounts and then illegally withdrawing deposited money. This practice was allegedly going on for the last three years and an amount of Rs 126.34 lakhs was illegally withdrawn by accused Asst Manager Ishwinder Singh, who is a resident of Pouni, it reported.

A dormant account is an account that has had no financial activity for a long period of time, except for the posting of interest. After the dormancy period, dormant accounts become the unclaimed property of the state.

The fraud came into notice of the bank after the accused withdrew amount from an already active account following which the account holder lodged a complaint in this regard.

As the J&K Bank head office initiated an internal probe, main accused Ishwinder Singh as well as then Branch Manager A P Singh Tara were placed under suspension. Besides, recovery of a few lakh rupees was also affected from the accused.

Investigation of the case is going on and no arrest was made in this regard so far, the sources said.