The Tiruppur City Police arrested a former chief manager of a nationalised bank in the early hours of Tuesday at Coimbatore on charges of misappropriating ₹1.8 crores.
Police said T. Dhandapani (60) was the chief manager at the S.R. Nagar branch of Indian Bank from August 2019 to May 2020. During this period, he allegedly misappropriated money from the fixed deposits of 12 customers. The accused allegedly forged documents to show that these customers took loans, and even changed their mobile phone numbers while withdrawing the cash so that the customers would not be notified of the change in their account balance.
He was suspended in May 2020, following which the Regional Manager (Erode) of Indian Bank S. Senthilkumar conducted an audit based on complaints from the 12 customers, who were told by the bank that they took loans when they visited to withdraw cash on maturity. Upon confirming the misappropriation of ₹1.8 crores, Mr. Senthilkumar submitted a complaint to Tiruppur City Commissioner of Police G. Karthikeyan in February this year, the police said.
Subsequently, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police registered a case against Dhandapani under Sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document), 477 A ( Falsification of accounts) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.
Based on a tip-off that the accused was residing in a gated community on Nanjundapuram Road in Coimbatore, a team from CCB led by Assistant Commissioner of Police K. Balamurugan arrested Dhandapani past midnight on Tuesday. He was later remanded in judicial custody at Tiruppur District Jail, according to the police.
