The postmaster of the Regent Estate post office at Bijoygarh in Jadavpur was arrested on Friday for allegedly cheating people who had opened term deposits at the post office, police said.

According to police officers, at least 25 people have been cheated out of ₹8 crore.

Dilip Kumar Jana, 59, was arrested from Gopalnagar in Alipore on Friday evening.

The fraud came to light in the last week of November last year, when a complainant, who had deposited money in the post office and suffered a loss of ₹3.5 crore, informed Jadavpur police station about the incident.

Throughout the investigation, the name of an agent emerged who purportedly persuaded the complainant to withdraw his fixed deposit from the post office, subsequently transferring the funds to another account as though they were being reinvested.

“Siddhartha Karanjai had introduced himself as an authorised agent of the department of posts and fraudulently induced the complainant to withdraw matured fixed deposit amounts. After that, the matured amount was transferred to another account in the name of reinvestment,” said an officer of the bank fraud section of the detective department that investigated the case.

“Subsequently, he and others involved in the crime misappropriated approximately ₹3.5 crore. The accused persons prepared and delivered forged post office passbooks and certificates to dupe the complainant,” the officer added.

During further investigation, Karanjai’s direct involvement with the post master of the post office emerged, the police said.

Jana, a resident of Sonarpur, was arrested on Friday.

“He violated the rules of the Indian Post and intentionally helped the arrested accused Siddhartha Karanjai to commit this crime. Sufficient evidence has been collected against him from the office of the senior superintendent of post offices, Indian Post, south division. It is apparent that without the help of the post master, the offence could not have been committed,” said Rupesh Kumar, joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police.

Jana was produced before the Alipore court on Saturday.

According to Kumar, two other cases have been registered against the accused for analogous crimes, where multiple individuals from the Regent Park and Netaji Nagar areas have been deceived.

“The total alleged defrauded money is ₹8.51 crore, and the number of victims is around 25,” Kumar added.