Chennai: The CBI arrested 2 suspects in a fixed deposit scam of 350 crores, which were invested in a nationalized bank, and later withdrawn fraudulently. The bank suffered a loss of Rs 45.4 crores by the way of premature closure of the fixed deposits by the suspects who produced original receipts while issuing duplicate ones to the Chennai Port Trust authorities.
The bank fraud case was filed in July 2020 after Indian Bank filed a complaint against its Koyambedu branch manager, a private person, and unknown others, accusing them of committing fraud, forgery, and impersonation to defraud the bank of 350 crores.
Instead of delivering the original fixed deposit receipt to Chennai Port Trust, the accused submitted duplicate/forged bonds to the organization. The suspect presented the same before the bank authorities and requested premature closure of the deposits within a few days of investment. The funds were moved to 28 other accounts, which were then withdrawn by the account holders and turned over to the suspects.
Soon after detecting the fraud, the port authorities alerted the bank to freeze the term deposits to the tune of 350 crores. However, the suspects had by then swindled 45.4 crores.
The CBI had earlier conducted searches on the premises of the suspects at 22 locations, including in Chennai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Nagercoil, which led to the recovery of several incriminating documents and material evidence.