MUMBAI: A former executive of a multinational bank has been arrested for transferring an 85-year-old customer’s Rs 9.4 crore into his own personal accounts from 2019-23 after convincing him to invest in stocks.
The alleged swindler, Ravi Sharma, was arrested by Gamdevi police on Saturday and produced before a court on Sunday. He has been sent to police custody till Monday.
Police said Sharma, who had previously worked as a senior relationship manager, had been assigned to the senior citizen and guided him on making investments through the bank. As per the complaint filed by the senior citizen’s daughter, he began taking the bank customer’s signatures on various forms and cheques in 2019 under the guise of stock investments, and even got the cellphone numbers registered with the bank changed.
Police said between 2019 and 2023, Sharma shared forged statements with the senior citizen, showing handsome returns on his investments and took his signatures on various documents, but slowly channelled the sums to his own personal bank accounts.
The complainant said she learnt about the fraud only after she visited the bank and tried to withdraw some money earlier this month.
Sharma’s lawyer, Rahul Agarwal, claimed that his arrest was illegal. “My client was taken into custody by police at 11am on Feb 10. However, he was produced before the court after 24 hours, at noon on Feb 11, which makes his detention illegal. Police also blatantly violated the Supreme Court’s guidelines laid down in the D K Basu and Arnesh Kumar judgments,” said Agarwal, referring to the apex court’s instructions to police on how to treat a suspect in custody.
