The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : One more held in bank cheating case

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Thursday, Mar 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

One more held in bank cheating case

Staff Reporter

He took personal loans in fictitious names

Accused confesses to police
Branch manager held earlier

CHENNAI: The Central Crime Branch police on Wednesday arrested one more person in connection with the case of obtaining of loans from a bank after submitting fake documents. Three persons, including the manager of one of its branches, were arrested some time ago.

According to the police, S. Sripathi, who acted as a middleman, was arrested on charges on cheating the Saidapet branch of State Bank of India to the tune of Rs.2.69 crore. He too personal loans in fictitious names by furnishing fake addresses.

The arrest followed a complaint from the bank chief manager, after which the Commissioner of Police G. Nanchil Kumaran directed the CCB police to register a case.

Investigations revealed that Arjunan (54), who was the branch manager, had allegedly sanctioned Rs. 2.69 crore personal loans to 115 applicants without proper verification of the documents submitted by Sripathi of R.R.Chetti Street, Saidapet. It is alleged that the manager did not adhere to the norms while sanctioning the loans. Besides the manager, a field officer of the bank and a government employee who allegedly cheated the bank of Rs. 50 lakh, were arrested.

Based on Sripathi’s confession, police registered a case under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) read with 109 (abetment). He was produced before Saidapet Judicial Magistrate court which remanded him to judicial custody.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (CCB) B.Vijayakumari said that the police were investigating whether there was any connivance with the officers in charge of disbursal and staff in charge of scrutinising the applications in this particular case. A special team is investigating whether Sripathi had indulged in such acts with other banks in the city.

ACP (Bank Frauds Wing) M. Paneerselvam said that many addresses furnished in the applications did not exist. In cases where they were correct, the names of the borrowers did not tally with that of the resident. And where a resident by that name was available at the address, he was found to be unemployed. The occupation of few other borrowers’ was mentioned as Siddha practitioners, but the police found that they were unemployed persons, he said.

The managers in-charge of disbursing personal loans should verify the documents such as salary certificate, proof of address with the organisations that had issued them and independently confirm the particulars furnished by the borrowers, the officers said.

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