There is more to the alleged defrauding of banks by K. Vijay Kumar Chanakya, an ex-IAS officer's son, arrested recently, than what meets the eye.
While Chanakya and his associate were put behind bars in the string of cheating cases involving misappropriation of nearly Rs. 15 crore, it is believed that soon some bank officials would follow suit. Already, managers of Punjab National and Vijaya banks were suspended by their respective managements following the findings in audit and vigilance reports.
Collusion alleged
“That is their internal disciplinary action. But, there is evidence suggesting that these two managers colluded with Chanakya,” police officials said on Monday. The accused admitted to the police that he hosted parties for bank officials so that the latter processed his loan applications quickly. In this hasty clearance of applications, investigators believe that rules pertaining to verification of documents and other formalities were deliberately ignored.
The accused followed different modus operandi to take the banks for a ride. In one case, Chanakya got a loan sanctioned to purchase two Ford Endeavors. He replaced the bank's covering letters with those in his company's name and presented them in the car showroom. Two days later, he went to the car dealers seeking return of money stating that he had decided not to buy the cars.
After deducting the bank transaction expenses, the showroom returned his money. How did the concerned bank officials give the loan demand drafts worth lakhs of rupees to Chanakya? “Allowing him to collect the DDs personally facilitated the fraud and this naturally raises the possible complicity of bank officials,” the investigators said.
In another interesting case, Chanakya floated a fictitious firm called Mayank Technologies and applied for loan in the name of his E-store company under the guise of business development. He claimed that E-store company wanted to purchase Nokia phones in bulk and Mayank Technologies was the supplier. Investigators said he opened accounts in the same bank in the name of these two companies, along with his personal account.
The bank sanctioned the loan to Mayank Technologies and Chanakya got the Rs. 2.48 crore loan amount transferred into his personal account and used it for his personal purposes. “Had the bank officials examined Mayank Technologies office, they would have realised it was a fake company. Apparently, their action – oversight or deliberate -- helped the accused,” the police said.
