New Delhi: Five people were arrested for their alleged involvement in a case of fraudulent withdrawal of more than Rs three lakh from a bank account with a cloned cheque in Okhla area, police said today.

The joint operation was carried out by the southeast district police and the Special Task Force, Uttar Pradesh, they said.

There were a series of fraudulent transactions through cloned cheques in Delhi and adjoining states, the police said.

One such case was registered in the Okhla Industrial Area on the basis of a complaint of a person alleging that Rs 3,60,500 was withdrawn from the bank account of his firm through a cloned cheque, the police said.

The victim learnt about the withdrawal when the original cheque issued by him was returned by the bank, they said.

He was informed that the cheque had already been cleared and money was transferred into an account in a bank branch in Allahabad, the police said. Subsequently, the accused were arrested from different places, they said.

The police said that one of the kingpins, Shoaib at Allahabad, would get the copy of a bonafide cheque of the victim through intermediaries and would pass it to his accomplice Akash at Delhi, the police said.

Akash then used to prepare a cloned cheque by printing account number, cheque number, and signature on a cheque leaf they added. He would deposit the cloned cheque in the account of his trusted people, they said. PTI