Government money deposited in nationalised banks is not necessarily safe, if the case in a Mangaluru city bank branch is anything to go by. A fixed deposit (FD) of ₹55 crore belonging to a government agency has allegedly been transferred to other accounts, reportedly by creating a fake fixed deposit account.
Veeranagouda Patil, Chief Finance Officer – I, Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (KRIDL), Bengaluru, has filed a complaint to this effect against the Indian Overseas Bank.
The Surathkal police have registered a case against Serin Madhusoodhan, manager, Kulai branch of the bank, and Senthil Kumar A., Regional Chief Manager of the bank in Ballalbagh, M.G. Road, on October 30.
According to the First Information Report, the KRIDL had deposited ₹20 crore in the bank’s Kulai branch on August 24, 2017, and another ₹35 crore in the same branch on August 30 for one-year at the interest rate of 5.75%. The amount had been transferred through RTGS from the Corporation Bank, S.C. Road, Bengaluru. The IOB had issued two bonds on the same to the KRIDL.
The two officials, who have been named as suspected accused in the FIR, transferred the said fixed deposit amount to a fake account created in the name of KRIDL from where it was transferred to other accounts. The complainant said that the accused have cheated the KRIDL. The case has been registered under Sections 409, 417, 420, 424, 468, 471 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code (FIR No. 276/2017).
A senior police official said on Tuesday that no arrests have been made yet and investigations are on.
Earlier, H.K. Patil, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, in a note to the Principal Secretary of the department on October 27, had instructed that a preliminary investigation on the same be conducted and a report submitted to the government by October 28.
The Minister said in the note that it came to his notice that ₹50 lakh had been transferred to an account in the name of Shah Exports at Koramangala branch of the Vijaya Bank in Bengaluru. The Vijaya Bank authorities said that the said zero balance account was non-operative for two years.
The Minister said that as per the information a large-scale illegal transfer of government money has taken place.
