A day after the CID raided the A.P. State Minorities Finance Corporation office, it made a breakthrough in nabbing the four accused persons allegedly responsible for siphoning off Rs. 55.47 crore belonging to the corporation.
The accused withdrew the money kept in a fixed deposit by fraudulent means from the Vijaya Bank branch at Koti by issuing 240 cheques in the name of 16 different firms after opening a fake current account in the name of APSMFC.
The arrested persons included the mastermind Chunduri Venkata Koti Saikumar, Nanduri Venkata Raman, B. Keshav Rao and Vijaya Bank assistant manager Naveen Sagar. All of them were produced before the court on Thursday. The CID formed several teams to unearth the misappropriated funds meant for grant of scholarships to the minority students.
In a press release, S.V. Ramana Murthy, additional DGP, CID, said simultaneous searches conducted in the houses of Saikumar, Venkata Raman, Vijay Bank, Koti and in the office of APSMFC led to seizure of documents, cash and vehicles.
Fixed deposits
The police recovered original fixed deposit receipts for Rs. 10 crore and Rs. 4 crore which are in the name of the APSMFC besides net cash of Rs. 80,000. Police also seized a Volkswagon Vento car worth Rs. 18 lakh, Chevrolet Beat worth Rs. 5 lakh, an Innova vehicle, original sale deed for purchase of 200 acres of land at Kothur in Mahabubnagar district worth Rs. 15 crore, original sale deed of a house plot worth Rs. 5 crore, cell phones, laptops, credit and debit cards.
Saikumar confessed that Rs. 8 crore was paid to launch a new TV channel in the name of ABC TV for which he had entered into a MoU with one Bhava Narayana and others.
The CID swung into action after M. Dana Kishore, Secretary, Minorities Welfare Department, lodged a written complaint regarding the matter on Tuesday.
The APSMFC had made fixed deposits to the tune of Rs. 78 crore in Vijaya Bank braches at Koti, Bandlaguda and Nallakunta this year.
The examination of the money flow chart showed that Saikumar, a post-graduate of M.Com and ICWA, established a software company in the name of Swal Computers at Begumpet and hatched a plan to siphon off fixed deposits of APSMFC. He teamed up with Venkata Raman of Kondapur to execute his plans.
Both of them then approached Kesava Rao of Kamalnagar, ECIL, who acts as a middle man in arranging fixed deposits to banks from various government departments and private organisations.
He was promised a commission of one percent on the amount deposited.
Accordingly, Kesava Rao arranged fixed deposit of Rs. 10 crore from the APSMFC to Vijaya Bank, Koti. This done, Saikumar and Venkata Raman approached Naveen Sagar, assistant manager, Vijaya Bank, Raichur.
The latter was paid Rs. 10 lakh for opening a current account in Vijaya Bank, Koti, in the name of APSMFC by using forged documents.
Thereafter, Venkata Raman floated 15 fictitious firms and opened accounts in different banks in Hyderabad. Subsequently, fixed deposits to a tune of Rs. 68 crore from the APSMFC was obtained through the middle man.
Fake FDs
Fake fixed deposit receipts in place of the original were prepared and handed over to APSMFC. The latter could detect the fraud only on receipt of the bank statements submitted by the Vijaya Bank to the managing director, APSMFC.
Saikumar and Venkata Raman diverted the FDRs to the tune of Rs. 55.47 crore into the current account opened by them in Vijaya Bank, Koti and then shifted the money to their bank accounts.
