(STORY) Central Bank cashier escapes with Rs 30 lakh

Central Bank Cashier Escapes With Rs 30 Lakh

The Central Bank of India’s (CBI) Mahoba branch today pressed into service two auditor rank officers after its head cashier, Santosh Kumar Anchal, escaped with cash worth Rs 30 lakh from different branches of the bank here on November 2. A case has been registered against Anchal at the Kotwali police station in Mahoba. The auditors are presently cross-checking the accounts of the bank’s Mahoba branch from where Anchal had escaped with Rs 10 lakh. The other two branches from where he had escaped with money are CBI’s Rath and Banda branches. 

The incident took place when Anchal was heading Mahoba branch in the absence of bank manager U N Tiwari. According to the police, Anchal called up CBI’s Rath branch manager Shesh Dhar on October 29 and requested him for Rs 10 lakh as his bank was short of money at that time. On October 30, Anchal collected the money from the Rath branch. On November 2, Anchal visited CBI’s Banda branch and took Rs 10 lakh from its senior manager A K Agarwal citing similar reasons. He did not return to Mohaba branch and called up CBI’s regional manager S K Mehrotra, saying that he had met with an accident and was admitted at the Regency Hospital in Kanpur. “When we checked with the hospital, the staff there informed us that no person of such name was admitted at the hospital,” Mehrotra added. Anchal has been on the run since then. 

A FIR, lodged by Agarwal, stated that during cross-checking of Mahoba’s branch account, it was learnt that Anchal had deposited Rs 12 lakh at State Bank of India’s Mahoba branch. However, when CBI cross-checked with SBI, they came to know that Anchal had deposited only Rs 2 lakh. 

“We generally deposit money to the SBI when a heavy amount is collected. The total bungling by Anchal is nearly Rs 30 lakhs,” said Agarwal. 

According to the CBI’s regional manager S K Mehrotra, since Anchal had escaped with the bank’s safe keys, a letter has been written to Godrej Company in Mumbai requesting them provide dublicate keys. “We plan to open the safes in the presence of police and other senior officers,” he added. 

Gyan Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Mahoba, said, “A police team was sent to Anchal’s residence in Jhansi. But they failed to locate him.