Bank Manager Allegedly 'Hypnotised' Into Parting With Rs. 93000
In
a bizarre case of fraud, the police are on a manhunt for a conman with
powers of hypnosis after a bank manager claimed he was bewitched into
parting with Rs 93,000. Although he handed over the money to the man
himself, he told the police that he had no conrol over his actions and
remembers little of what had happened.
Around 11 am on Tuesday, manager Bhupendra Kumar Maniram (52) was sitting at his desk at the Dadar
branch of State Bank of Patiala, when a man walked in and introduced
himself as MK Sharma, an officer from the Maharashtra Housing and
Development Authority (MHADA).
"He
met me under the pretext of opening a bank account for his brother, who
he claimed was disabled. While I was discussing the procedure, I asked
him about his profession and he told me that he works for MHADA. Very
soon, he offered to help me get MHADA flats at a very reasonable rate,"
Maniram said in his statement to the police.
Smooth operator
"With
his smooth talking, Sharma convinced me to invest in the project and
immediately called up someone from his phone pretending to register my
name. He also gave my address details and PAN card information to the
person on the phone," he told cops.
The
next thing Maniram recollected was walking to the cashier and asking
for R90,000. He told the police he was in a trance and had no control
over his actions. When the cashier gave him the money, he walked back to
his cabin and gave it to the accused, along with another R3,000 from
his pocket. It was only ten minutes later that Maniram could come out of
the trance, when he realised he had been duped.
"Ten
minutes later after Maniram came to his senses he realised that he had
been cheated, but by that time the accused had disappeared with the
money. Maniram only remembers taking the money from the cashier. He then
approached the Dadar police station and registered a case of cheating,"
said a cop from Dadar Police.
An
FIR was registered under section 420 (cheating) against the name the
conman had used - MK Sharma, but the cops learnt this was a false
identity.
Maniram
told mid-day, "I would not like to give the details of the case at the
moment. Please contact the Dadar police for any queries."
Senior
Police Inspector Nishikant Patil of Dadar police station said, "We
retrieved the CCTV footage from the bank, and based on that, the
accused's sketch has been made. We have now launched a major manhunt for
him."
"The
complainant was hypnotised into giving the money. Our investigation has
revealed that the accused had also tried to dupe a manager at another
bank in Dadar but failed," said the investigating officer in the case,
Police Sub-Inspector Yashwantrao Shinde, adding that the other bank
manager had recognised the accused from the sketch
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
