Chhattisgarh: Ex-manager of public sector bank held for fraud

A former manager of a government-owned bank in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district has been arrested for allegedly cheating customers and committing financial irregularities, a police official said on Sunday. Alok Gupta, during his tenure as manager of the Central Bank of India's Ramanuj Nagar branch, allegedly used fraudulent means to transfer customers' sanctioned loan amounts to other accounts in a bid to embezzle money, he said quoting complaints against the accused.

"Gupta was on the run after two cases were registered against him in this connection last month. He was arrested from Garhwa district of neighboring Jharkhand state on Saturday," Surajpur's Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kukreja told PTI. Besides, two more persons, identified as Alok Shukla and Rafique Khan, were also arrested for allegedly helping Gupta in evading arrest, he said.

Last month, two customers lodged FIRs against Gupta, then assistant manager Surendra Marandi and then cashier Abhishek Mandal of the bank's Ramanuj Nagar branch, he said. As per the complaint lodged by Radheshaym Singh, a betel shop owner in Ramanuj Nagar, he submitted an application to Gupta earlier this year seeking Mudra loan of Rs 5 lakh from the bank.

Whenever he enquired about the loan, Gupta told him it was not sanctioned, the official said quoting the complaint. Later in September, when Singh checked the statement of his Jan Dhan (savings) account with the bank, he found that Rs 5 lakh Mudra loan was sanctioned to him and deposited in his account on March 1 this year.

Also, the entire money was transferred to five different accounts on the same day and the next day, about which Singh was completely unaware, the SP said. Singh last month lodged an FIR against Gupta and Mandal for allegedly transferring his loan amount to other accounts through fraudulent means, he said.

Similarly, another customer Dinesh Vishwkarma, who is a doctor at a local community health centre, took a home loan of Rs 20 lakh from the bank. On May 27 this year, Rs 5 lakh from his loan account was first transferred to the account of one Rajesh Shankar Das and further to the account of one Mithlesh Kumar and withdrawn from it, he said.

Vishwakarma also lodged an FIR against Gupta and Marandi last month, he said. The three accused were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy), he said.

The three bank officials were suspended since the alleged fraud was busted a couple of months back, he said. "The investigation revealed that the main accused, Gupta, in connivance with banks officials allegedly used his login ID and password to fraudulently transfer and withdraw the loan amounts," the police official said.

Mandal was arrested last month, he said, adding that efforts are on to trace Marandi. Some other bank employees were also under the scanner and were being questioned, he said.

During the investigation, 15 more customers of the bank contacted the police about the withdrawal of funds collectively worth over Rs 56 lakh from their accounts without their knowledge, he said, adding that the complaints were being probed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)