Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch Kashmir has filed a chargesheet in a decade old bank fraud case involving the alleged embezzlement of nearly ₹3.11 crore from the Central Co-operative Bank in Baramulla, bringing a long pending investigation closer to judicial resolution.
The chargesheet, filed in connection with an FIR registered in 2016 under sections of the Ranbir Penal Code covering cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy, was presented before the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Handwara against two accused persons.
According to investigators, the probe was set in motion following a written communication from the then Registrar of Co-operative Societies in Jammu and Kashmir, who had flagged large scale financial irregularities across multiple branches of the Central Co-operative Bank in Baramulla. The complaint pointed to systemic lapses that warranted a detailed forensic and financial investigation.
The investigation subsequently established that the then Branch Manager of the bank’s Langate branch, allegedly acting in connivance with a co-accused, had sanctioned fictitious loans and permitted overdrafts far exceeding his delegated financial authority. This resulted in the misappropriation of approximately ₹3.11 crore from the bank’s funds, a sum that investigators say caused substantial and lasting financial damage to the cooperative institution.
Officials said the accused had entered into a deliberate criminal conspiracy to facilitate the fraudulent transactions, exploiting internal financial controls to siphon off funds over an extended period before the irregularities came to light. Once the investigation was completed and the allegations found to be substantiated, the chargesheet was formally filed before the competent court to initiate judicial proceedings.
The two men named in the chargesheet are Ghulam Mohammad Beigh, a retired Branch Manager and resident of Kenyal Tarthpora in Handwara, and Abdul Hamid Gojrii, who worked as a Cashier cum Clerk and resides in Gund Karim Khan, Rafiabad. Both now face trial on charges that could carry significant legal consequences given the scale of the alleged fraud.
The case underscores the persistent vulnerability of cooperative banking institutions in rural Kashmir to internal financial misconduct, and the Crime Branch’s continuing effort to pursue long pending economic offence cases to their logical conclusion, even those originating nearly a decade ago.
