Last week, the Malegaon police charged a ‘businessman’ identified as Siraj Ahmed Harun Meman with misusing 12 people’s bank accounts and conducting transactions worth Rs 90 crore. According to the police, the trader informed the interested parties that he intended to start a corn trading company through the Malegaon agriculture market committee and required various bank accounts.
As per the reports, the accused further assured the villagers that he would help them get the jobs if he was helped with the bank accounts to establish the business. Around 12 bank account holders identified as Rahul Kale, Manoj Misal, Pratik Jadhav, Pavan Jadhav, Lalit More, Rajendra Giri, Dhanraj Bacchav, Bhavesh Ghumre, Divakar Ghumre, and Dattatray Kailas were alarmed when they discovered the large sums of money transacted through their accounts.
This led them to promptly file a complaint against the trader at the Chhavani police station, where an FIR was lodged under sections 3(5), 316(5), 318 (4)(cheating), 336(3), 340(2) and 338 (forgery) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Inspector Deepak Jadhav of the Chhavani police station stated, “We are investigating the details of the transactions made through the accounts of these 12 individuals. No arrests have been made so far.”
According to Jadhav, the trader, who runs an agency dealing in tea and cold drinks in Malegaon, had informed his vehicle driver that he needed to open bank accounts in other people’s names to facilitate payments to farmers, as he was planning to enter the corn trading business at the market committee. The trader had also promised him a job in the market committee in return for his assistance in opening the accounts.
The driver subsequently arranged for 11 others, who provided their documents to open accounts in a co-operative bank in Malegaon, hoping to secure jobs as well. These accounts were opened on September 27th. As per the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, one of the account holders then checked his account and discovered that crores of rupees had been transacted through his account.
Upon contacting the others, they all visited the bank and learned that transactions totalling Rs 90 crore had been made across the 12 accounts. Concerned that their accounts were being exploited for illegal activities, they filed a complaint of cheating against the trader.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya meanwhile took cognizance of the incident and wrote to the Election Commission saying that money was being used to practice ‘Vote Jihad’. “It seems hundreds of crore rupees benami transactions have taken place in October 2024. Some money would have been used for the elections, Vote Jihad,” he said.
“In all 17 bank accounts were used to receive money and transfer the same to various more than 2 dozen bank accounts in various parts of Maharashtra. Some details about Rs 25 crore hawala transactions are traced to Mumbai. It seems that more than Rs 50 crore have been transferred to a couple of accounts in
Mumbai/Ahmedabad. Siraj Ahmed and his colleague Naim Khan have anonymously used Rs 125 crores. This Rs 125 crore has been withdrawn and transferred to various benami entities,” he added.
Somaiya also noted that Malegaon was a place where a very aggressive Vote Jihad movement was going on. During Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the BJP candidate got only 100 votes against the Congress candidate who got 194000 votes, he said.
He also demanded the strictest punishment against the accused and his associate.
