The Hindu : Bank fraud case likely for CBI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Bank fraud case likely for CBI

By Our Staff Reporter

NAGERCOIL JAN. 6. The district police are likely to refer the case of embezzlement of Rs. 1.99 crores from the local State Bank of India branch to either the CB-CID or the Central Bureau of Investigation, and ruled out involvement of any terrorist outfit in the case.

The Superintendent of Police, P. Sandeep Mittal, held an inquest, and officials and employees of the bank were grilled for more than an hour and the police also picked up a person from a courier service for interrogation.

Nearly 44 cheques were deposited into the account of one Nasser and a total of Rs. 1.99 crores was withdrawn from the bank till December-end last. According to the police, Nasser purportedly opened an account with the Perumalpuram branch of the SBI in Tirunelveli district in August 2002, depositing Rs. 5,000, and shifted his account to the Nagercoil branch in September 2002. He posed as a prosperous businessman and claimed to have been receiving cheques from a body-building company in Mumbai and Bangalore. He frequently deposited his cheques and encashed them. He was also said to have issued bearer cheques to three persons — two Muslims and one Hindu.

The police, who were left clueless on the whereabouts of Nasser and three others, suspect that the four could have colluded and encashed Rs. 1.99 crores over a period of three months. All the while, the bank officials cleared the cheques ``as they obtained the go-ahead from the service branches in Mumbai and Bangalore,'' a senior police official investigating the case told The Hindu here.

Every time the cheque was sent for clearance, it was returned through a private courier service, authorising the Nagercoil branch to pay cash to the beneficiary.

Recently, Nasser had deposited a cheque for Rs. 23 lakhs, but did not turn up to withdraw the sum.

A special team lead by the DSP, Jayachandran, found the address provided by Nasser at Tirunelveli false.

The police also found his Nagercoil residence deserted. Preliminary investigation revealed that the four would have connived with a private courier service and some bank employees, the police said.

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