The miseries of the family of the Kathua rape and murder victim are far from over.
The father of the 8-year-old girl has been duped of 10 lakh rupees which were given as donation to him, reported the India Today.
The donation money has been siphoned off from his bank account by anonymous people and he remains isolated from former neighbors in the village.
He told India Today, “Someone has withdrawn more than Rs 10 lakh from our joint account. We have no information about it. The statement shows consistent withdrawal and we are only left with Rs 35,000 in the account. We were told over Rs 1 crore had been donated from all over the world, but don’t know where it went.”
Within three months, in different transactions, over Rs 10 lakh has been debited, but not by the holder.
He showed the passbook and analyzed entries. A person named Aslam Khan had withdrawn Rs 2 lakh on January 11, 14, 15, and 18, this year.
When the joint account-holders rang up one Aslam they knew in the family, he gave a vague response – thereby increasing suspicion of the father. Aslam had accompanied the man on few occasisons to the bank. There is no clarity, however, who debited such a large sum of money and if the same man misused the cheques.
Transactions took place on January 21 and 22 and Rs 4 lakh was withdrawn.
Again, not all by the holder. A new name now makes way into the statement — that of one Naseem.
The Bakerwal family is illiterate and resort to thumb-impressions for such transactions. The fear is: Did someone get access to approved cheques and withdrew over Rs 10 lakh without consent?
The grief-stricken man asked, “Where has the money gone? We are uneducated and do not know what happened.”
J-K Bank has said that due procedure had been followed. Money was withdrawn using cheques signed and dated so the bank could do little to refuse.
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“Bank received the cheques with proper dates and impression. The family can block the cheque book, till further notice. Someone within their known circle has had access to all details and ensured bank protocol was followed,” said the branch head of J&K Bank, where the account was opened.
Shockingly, a cheque to “Self” withdrew another Rs 2 lakh on March 21, 2019. The father says he was with family in Samba and has had no access to the cheque.
In total, as of today, approximately Rs 22 lakh has been withdrawn from the account. He withdrew only Rs 10 lakh. The rest is a matter of speculation and demands an investigation.
On April 24, 2018, Ketto Online Ventures first transferred Rs 18,46,774 to the account — via a crowdfunding campaign. In the next one month, different organizations credited an additional Rs 50,000. On 28 May 2018, the balance in the man’s account was Rs.19,23,774.
Till December 23, over Rs. 21 lakh showed in his bank statement with some additional credits.
From January-March 2019, sudden transactions began. Different identities withdrew over Rs 10 lakh without the knowledge of the account holder.
Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah in while reacting over the report, in a tweet said:
We continue to support the family of the Rassana victim as they seek justice for the little girl but those people who made new careers for themselves using this tragedy by being involved on a day to day basis need to explain why they’ve abandoned the family for greener pastures. https://t.co/6ZLVSPeaIZ
— JKNC (@JKNC_) April 12, 2019
