Pune Police Freeze Varanasi Bank Account After Rs 2 Crore DD Fraud Attempt

Viman Nagar, 29th September 2025: Airport police in Pune acted swiftly to freeze a bank account in Varanasi after fraudsters attempted to siphon off Rs 2 crore using a cloned demand draft (DD). The perpetrators impersonated representatives of a consultancy firm based in Varanasi.

According to police, a Pune-based agribusiness company had issued the original DD from the Vimannagar branch of a private bank between September 22 and 24 to make a payment to the consultancy firm as part of a business deal.

However, when the company decided to cancel the transaction, they discovered that the DD had already been presented at the Varanasi bank and the funds had been transferred to an account there. The bank manager immediately lodged a complaint with Airport police, who then moved to freeze the account.

Assistant Inspector Sameer Karpe of Airport police said, “The money remains intact in the frozen account. We have requested details of the account holder from the bank in Varanasi. Our investigation aims to determine at what stage the DD was cloned and whether there was any internal involvement.”

The Pune bank manager added that on September 22, a company official had approached the branch to issue a DD worth Rs 2 crore in favor of the Varanasi-based consultancy firm, providing a cheque for the amount. “The DD was processed and handed over to the company official, but it was never sent to the consultancy firm,” Karpe explained.

When the company’s deal fell through, the official returned to the bank on September 25 to cancel the DD. It was then discovered that the same day, the DD had been fraudulently presented in Varanasi. “The cloned DD had altered the name and account details of the original drawee,” Karpe said.

A case has been registered, and police are investigating the incident to trace the fraudsters and determine how the DD was cloned.