The Prakasam police on Thursday arrested eight persons, including Vetapalem Cooperative Urban Bank Limited manager and secretary Sriram Srinivasa Rao for allegedly misappropriating ₹22.69 crore of bank funds at Vetapalem, near Chirala, in Prakasam district.
A probe by the police revealed that the prime accused, Srinivasa Rao, with the knowledge of the bank's president, vice-president and directors had allegedly misappropriated the money deposited by the bank customers and invested it in LIC bonds, shares, farm lands, housing plots and gold ornaments.
Efforts were on to freeze the accounts of the accused in various banks and safe deposit lockers in the name of the accused and their relatives. As per law, their assets would be seized and steps taken to protect the interests of depositors, said Prakasam Superintendent of Police Malika Garg.
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Others arrested in this connection were bank president Valiveti Nageswararao, vice-president Vallampatla Ramalinga swamy and directors Chillamkuri Anjaneya Gupta, Koduri Rajendra Prasad, Nune Mohan Krishna, Kolisetty Venkata Satyanarayana and Rayavarapu Srinivasarao. As per the account register, the bank had 1,930 fixed deposit accounts, 138 recurring deposit accounts and 850 saving deposit accounts and 1,737 share holders.