Agartala, Sept. 6 -- The Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Mayor Dipak Majumder on Saturday confirmed that the civic body has lodged an FIR after detecting a fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 16.43 crore from its official account at UCO Bank's main branch here.

Majumder said the funds were embezzled using cloned bearer cheques, while the originals remain with the AMC.

"The money has been credited to the account of a Hyderabad-based agency with which we have no link. We don't know whether anyone from the bank is involved, but prima facie it appears cloned cheques were used. We have already asked the bank authorities to return our money," he told reporters.

The Mayor said the corporation would pursue all legal measures to ensure the money, ...