City police on Tuesday nabbed two men - Sudhir Kumar and Ritesh Kumar - who have amassed more than Rs 1 crore by forging cheques, and depositing the amount in their own accounts.

Speaking of the arrested duo, Patna superintendent (West) Satya Prakash, told The Telegraph: "You must have seen the 2002 Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can. In the film, Frank Abagnale Junior, would forge airline cheques and was wanted by the FBI. In the case of this duo, the situation is similar. The police are trying to ascertain how they did it, as forging cheques is technical."

Both Sudhir and Ritesh, who are in their mid thirties, hail from the Shastrinagar police station jurisdiction, and were nabbed as they attempted to encash a forged cheque at a nationalised bank located at Khagaul.

"They were trying to encash a cheque worth Rs 49,50,000," said Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj. The cheque belonged to Patanjali Yogpeeth located at Haridwar. The bank manager had doubts about the cheque. He informed the police, who immediately rushed in and nabbed the duo. While a team of cops will be sent to Haridwar, the police are sure that some of the bank officials are also involved with these men. The branch manager had called up the Patanjali office for verification first and was told that they had not issued any such cheque. The men are being interrogated for more information."

With the police still trying to understand the duo's modus operandi, as many as four passbooks issued by different nationalised banks, two cheque books, an ATM card and some stamps have been recovered from their possession.

"One of the passbooks, which belongs to Sudhir Kumar, has a balance of more than a crore. The other passbooks are being examined. Of what the police know until now, the men forged cheques belonging to individuals and different companies with the help of some bank officials. The cheque numbers were changed in accordance and the signature was duplicated and put on the forged cheque and presented to the bank. Several accounts have been cleared out using these cheques. The information must have been provided to them by bank officials," senior superintendent Maharaaj added.