The Chittoor Urban police on Tuesday arrested P. Shanmugam (54), the former chairman of Chittoor Cooperative Town Bank, on charges of cheating the bank to the tune of ₹1.2 crore by availing gold loans and using artificial jewellery as mortgage.
The accused is a senior leader of the opposition Telugu Desam Party, representing the Backward Classes wing, who worked in the nominated post of the bank till the party lost power in the Assembly elections last year.
Addressing a press meet here, Deputy SP (Chittoor) Eeshwar Reddy said that on February 13, bank officials approached the I-Town police with a complaint that Shanmugam had resorted to fraud during his tenure with the help of gold appraiser Dharani Sagar. The duo had allegedly committed the fraud with 43 accounts of 15 persons, who are either their relatives or friends.
Mr. Reddy said that the cheating was detected while the manager was handing over charge to his successor, followed by verification and reappraisal of properties mortgaged for gold loan accounts.
When the bank authorities had contacted Shanmugam, he had reportedly turned hostile at them. The deputy SP said that acting on a complaint lodged by the bank officials, a special team was formed to search for Shanmugam. On Tuesday, he was arrested at Reddigunta checkpost on outskirts of Chittoor.
During interrogation, it was revealed that Shanmugam had used the loan money to purchase a car for his first wife, and land for his second wife and her daughter, besides giving a share to the appraiser.
The police officer said that a search is on for Dharani Sagar, who is absconding. The fake gold used by the duo was seized.
It was further ascertained in the course of the investigation that as many as 14 cases were booked against Shanmugam between 2011 and 2020 at various police stations in Chittoor district, including those under Section 420 and for cheque bounce, police said.
The police officer added that Shanmugam was also reportedly involved in collecting huge amounts from unemployed youth on the pretext of getting them jobs. The accused was later produced before Chittoor court and was remanded.
