After a month of eluding the Neredmet police, a fraudster operating from the Bank Of India’s local branch was nabbed on Saturday. The accused, Sudhakar Reddy, was said to have cheated customers of Bank Of India (BoI)’s Neredmet branch to the tune of ₹50 lakh — all this right under the nose of BoI officials.
Reddy allegedly had an office space on the bank premises. He had endeared himself to several customers of the bank, especially the elderly and the unlettered, by helping them make deposits, pretending to save them the hassle of long queues.
“In some cases, he obtained sensitive information on the pretext of facilitating deposits. He also used a biometric device to capture thumb impressions,” said Neredmet inspector M. Jagdish Chander.
The fraud came to light in September when one of the bank’s customers lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that nearly ₹3.6 lakh had disappeared from her account. Soon after, 262 others came forward with similar complaints: amounts ranging from a few thousand to a few lakh rupees had mysteriously vanished from their accounts.
When the police searched Reddy’s office space, they found several hundred passbooks and debit cards that were to be posted to customers.
They launched a manhunt to nab him and, over a month, tracked him down in Kadiri in Anantapur.
The fraudster’s victims wonder how his activities had gone unnoticed by the bank officials for so long. “Though he was not a bank employee, Sudharkar Reddy had an office space right next to where senior officers sat,” said Raghuveer Yadav, son of a duped customer. Reddy had taken the thumb impression of Mr. Yadav’s mother on a biometric device on the pretext of updating her account and passbook. However, despite several requests, he had not returned her passbook, which was later recovered by the police.
“He interacted with all bank customers and also had two persons working under him,” said the inspector.
Police sources said the investigation was under way and any evidence pointing to collusion of bank staff would be probed. The bank, said the police, had already refunded ₹11 lakh to customers, mainly those who had lost relatively small amounts. Investigating authorities said the bank was yet to calculate the extent of fraud although Reddy insisted that it was about ₹30 lakh. The victims, however, estimate it to be ₹4 crore.
