Bank manager, three booked for cheating expatriate

MADURAI

The manager of a State Bank of India’s branch here and three others have been booked by the Central Crime Branch of Madurai City police for allegedly cheating an expatriate residing in the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa around ₹ 1.79 crore in the last five years before by promising him to purchase land.

While the three have been arrested, the bank manager Nallaperumal Pillai was absconding, an official involved in the investigation said.

According to the FIR, the victim Rajamanickam Baskar (56) was maintaining an Non Resident Indian (NRI) account at the SBI branch in his and his wife Visalatchi Baskar’s name.

Police sources said that seeing the regular transactions being made in the account, the branch manager approached Mr. Baskar with the idea of purchasing a land at a prime location in Managiri here that is to be liquidated through the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest (SARFAESI) Act.

Believing in him, the complainant initially transferred ₹ 20 lakh to the branch manager and later gave him a blank debit slip with his signature for withdrawal. The FIR said that ₹ 1.59 crore was subsequently withdrawn from the account under the pretext of payment for purchasing the land.

However, Mr. Baskar later found that forged documents were created in the name of three sellers to sell him a non-existent land.

A case was registered against the branch manager and the other three — Balaji Venkatesan, Meenatchi Sundaram and Parasakthi. The three were arrested by the police on Friday.