Darjeeling: In a shocking incident, an Indian Army jawan's wife has been accused of cheating the wives of 17 other army jawans of Rs 1.5 crore in Upper Bagdogra area in West Bengal's Darjeeling, sources said on Friday. Police have started an investigation into the incident. The incident has triggered a huge uproar in the entire area.
It is learnt that the cheated soldiers' spouses approached the police after the accused fled with the money. According to police sources, the accused jawan's wife named Hema Nagarba Tamang is a resident of Goirigaon in Darjeeling. Police said that she was living on rent in Stalinnagar in Upper Bagdogra near Siliguri for the last one-and-a-half years.
Her husband Mahendra Tamang is in the army and is currently posted in Jammu and Kashmir, police sources said. Being the wife of an army jawan, the accused Hema Tamang became friends with the wives of other army jawans in Siliguri. She owns a cloth shop in Upper Bagdogra. Sources said that Hema Tamang started targeting members of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA).
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They said that after making friends, she began taking loans from army jawans' wives on the pretext of buying a house. She borrowed from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh from each of the 17 jawans' wives, added the sources. It is alleged that Hema defrauded about Rs 1.5 crore from a total of 17 jawans' spouses. Sources said that the accused was supposed to return the money within one to three years but did not pay it back.
They said that one fine day she suddenly absconded for a month with her phone number switched off. That is when all 17 women realised that they had been cheated. As soon as they realised the fraud, they lodged a written complaint at Bagdogra Police Station under Siliguri Police Commissionerate on Thursday night.
Siliguri Police Commissioner C Sudhakar confirmed that complaints have been lodged in this regard and accordingly a case has also been registered into the matter. “Since it is an army matter, action will be taken after discussion with the army officials," he said. Vandana Rai, the wife of the defrauded army jawan, said, "She (Hema) took Rs 5.5 lakh from me. I am a jawan's wife. We trusted her and gave the money due to the fact that Hema was also a jawan's wife. But Hema cheated us. We approached the police for that."
Lawyer Bhavya Adhikari said, "The matter has already been informed to the AWWA. The commanding officer of the place where accused Hema's husband is stationed has also been informed via a letter."
