Andhra Pradesh - Cuddapah   

Ex-Army driver held on charge of duping banks

By Our Staff Reporter

CUDDAPAH, JUNE 14. The Cuddapah police have arrested a dismissed Army driver of Karnataka and unearthed drawal of over Rs. 10 lakhs from banks by presenting fake defence cheques for a year, said the Superintendent of Police, V.C. Sajjanar, here on Monday.

Repani Narayanappa (43) of Bagepalle in Kolar district of Karnataka, who worked as a driver in the Army and was dismissed from service in 1997, was taken into custody, the SP told a press conference. Subsequently, Narayanappa narrated his poor financial status to an Accounts Section Officer in the AOC Centre at Secunderabad, S.K. Pande, and joined as his servant. Mr. Pande, who has since been transferred to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, was paid a share of Rs. 2.50 lakhs by the accused in return for the `favour,' he said.

Narayanappa, Pande and Assistant Accounts Officer, K.M. Venkateswara Rao, in the Army office at Secunderabad, allegedly colluded with each other wherein the former promised to pay 40 per cent to the latter and fake cheques for payment of Army group insurance and medical allowance were issued, Mr. Sajjanar alleged. Narayanappa drew over Rs. 10 lakhs by presenting the cheques to the State Bank of India branches at Rayachoti and Gorantla and the Canara Bank's Bagepalle branch, the SP stated.

The SBI's Trimulgherry branch detected that the Defence cheques, through the use of which the accused draw Rs. 1.80 lakhs on December 20, 2003, Rs. 1.57 lakhs on February 23, 2004 and Rs. 1.89 lakhs on May 13 this year, were fake ones, the SP said. On the basis of a complaint lodged by the SBI's Rayachoti branch manager, Narayappa was arrested, he said.

He feared that the fake cheque scam could be of a bigger magnitude and hence the bank and Army officials of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were informed about the case. Three special police parties under the leadership of the Pulivendula DSP, Liaqat Ali Khan, were sent to other States to apprehend Pande and Venkateswara Rao, the civilian officers in the Army, the SP said. A case was booked in Rayachoti Urban police station. The Additional SP, T. Narasinga Rao, the Pulivendula DSP and Rayachoti Urban circle inspector, Naganna, who investigated the case, were also present.

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