IAF funds stolen

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has issued a statement saying it’s public fund account in a unidentified government-owned bank has been subject to fraudulent withdrawals carried out over the period of June 4 to June 10 this year.

“A total of 15 checks amounting to INR 4,841,910 have been realized through the bank against accounts of purportedly non-existent individuals, across the country. The fraudsters, however, have managed to withdraw about INR 1,400,000 through various Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across several states, according to bank sources. The exact figure is yet to be ascertained,” said the statement,

The fraud was detected by the Air Force Central Account Office (AFCAO), which found that the withdrawals were carried out using ‘counterfeit checks with forged signatures that were cleared by the bank’.

While the bank has agreed to reimburse the missing amount to the IAF’s public fund, the IAF is assisting in its inquiry and has submitted the complete schedule of original checks to facilitate, both, the detection of the fake checks as well as the clearance of genuine checks. The IAF has also instituted an inquiry into the case and has filed an First Information Report (FIR) with the civil police. The IAF is now conducting a validation of all its public and non-public accounts held by at all its establishments.

The IAF says that discussions with the bank staffers revealed the fraudulent checks to have originated from various parts of the country based on fictitious bank accounts opened on the basis of, presumably fake documents, like Discharge Book and Certificate of Service.