Four suspects have been arrested by the CID for withdrawing Rs 43 million from a private bank after producing forged cheques in the name of a company manufacturing steel rods, the police spokesman said. 

DIG Ajith Rohana said that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had carried out special investigations in respect of a fraud of Rs 43 million and that this particular incident had taken place on April 12.

According to the complainant, a steel manufacturing company, soon after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season they had realized that a sum of Rs 43 million had been withdrawn from an account maintained by the company in a private bank.

Thereafter the company in question had lodged a complaint with the CID, which had immediately launched an investigation and uncovered that a third party had printed a counterfeit cheque book similar to the one issued to the company by the bank.

The perpetrators had then deployed five persons to cash these cheques at the branches of the private bank while these five persons had been sent to cash the checks dressed in the uniform of the company in question.

Accordingly, investigations had been initiated and four suspects have been arrested in this connection including the main suspect, a 37-year-old man, who has been identified as the printer of these counterfeit cheques.

The main suspect had been arrested in the Hanwella area while his accomplice, a 51-year-old man, has been arrested in the Ranala area. The latter had arrived in Sri Lanka on April 05 from the United Kingdom.

In addition to that a bank employee has also been arrested in connection with the cheque fraud while it was revealed that employee works for the same private bank where the company’s account is held, the spokesman said.

The CID has also apprehended one of the individuals who had visited a branch of the bank to cash one of these forged cheques. He has been identified as a 27-year-old from Weyangoda and an executive of a private company.

DIG Ajith Rohana said that four more suspects, who had visited bank branches to cash the forged cheques and are now absconding, have been identified while special teams have been deployed to arrest them.

The Police Spokesman added that further investigations are underway.