Days ahead of his retirement from service, a senior bank officer was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of demanding and accepting ₹7,500 bribe from a customer for releasing property documents on closure of a loan account.
According to sources in the agency, Sankara Subramanian of Chennai lodged a complaint with the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch that W. Ravindran Samuel, senior manager of Indian Bank, Kellys Branch, had demanded ₹15,000 bribe and reduced the amount to ₹7,500 for releasing property documents. The complainant had given the document as collateral for his sister’s cash credit limit loan of ₹8 lakh taken for a business. He repaid the loan. After repaying the loan, Mr. Subramanian approached the official seeking return of the document when the latter allegedly demand bribe. However, he allegedly demanded the money for competing the closure formalities. After registering a case against Mr. Samuel under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, CBI officials laid a trap and arrested him soon after he accepted ₹7,500 from the complainant, the sources said.
“Though property documents have to be returned to the customer after closure of loan account, we have been receiving complaints of some bank officials demanding bribe for issuing loan closure certificate or signing cancellation of hypothecation documents. In this case, the complainant had been trying to get back his original property documents since March this year but the Senior Manager insisted on the bribe,” an official said.
He was produced before a Special Judge for CBI cases for judicial custody. The accused is due to retire on May 31.
