Mumbai: A forged letter-of-credit for Rs 7 crore, issued by the Marine Lines, Mumbai, branch of Dena Bank, has come to light. A Mandlekar, an officer of the bank, had issued the letter-of-credit for procuring materials for yarn trading in favour of three companies. These companies subsequently discounted the letter-of-credits in three branches of UTI Bank, located in Mumbai boroughs.

The forgery came to light when UTI Bank tried to settle accounts with Dena Bank, which has refused to pay UTI Bank as the documents used for the letter-of-credit was forged, and Mandlekar had no authorisation to sign the documents. Mandlekar has since been suspended and the case has been reported to the CBI.

The companies involved are: Gourav Continental, Uma Petroproducts and Mahesh Kothari Share and Broking.These companies had been enjoying financial facilities from the Marine Lines branch of Dena bank since 1999.

The promoters  of these companies are Mahendra Pandey, Alka Pandey, Bhupendra Mehta and Mahesh Kothari.