The bank fraud wing of the Central Crime Branch attached to the Chennai police on Wednesday arrested three persons, including a bank manager, for siphoning off Rs 19.crore from a nationalised bank.
According to police, on March 19, S. Nallasivam, Deputy General Manager of Canara Bank in Teynampet, lodged a complaint with the city police Commissioner S. George stating that the manager of Ambattur Branch had sanctioned Rs.19 crores to a customer which is beyond the permissible limit.
In his complaint, he mentioned that the Canara Bank’s Small and Medium Enterprises branch was functioning in Ambattur with V. Jagadeesha as chief manager. The limitation for issuing loan by a chief manager is betweenRs.50 lakhs and Rs. 1.5 crore.
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Meanwhile M. Balasubramanian, managing director, of a private company in Anna Nagar, had an account for the last 18 years. He approached Jagadeesha and informed him that he had got an industrial order for Rs.132 crores in Karnataka. He requested for sanction of Rs.19 crores to carry out the work.
Jagadeesha, who knew that his limitation of sanctioning loan is between Rs.50 lakhs to Rs.1.5 crore, transferred Rs.19 crores to Mumbai branches of two private banks. Senior officials of Canara bank grew suspicious upon seeing the transactions that had taken place in Balasubramaniam’s account during the month of February and March-2013.
When they verified the records of the branch at Ambattur, they found that Jagadeesha had sanctioned the overdraft. “Balasubramanian has an overdraft limit of Rs 50.lakh. But he has taken more than the permissible limit. The money was transferred to some eight accounts of different banks,” said a senior police officer.
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Based on the complaint, a case was registered by the Bank Fraud team and it was taken up for investigation. “On 19 night itself we froze Rs.6.27 crores in various branches of a private bank. Further investigation revealed that Chitra Balasubramanian, director of the private company also has a role in the offence.
All the three accused were arrested and produced before Judicial Magistrate. “Last year we solved some 20 similar cases. We have been holding regular awareness for bank officials,” said the police officer.