Bank fraud: CBI takes over probe from cops

CHENNAI: The Anti-corruption Bureau of CBI, Chennai has taken over a case from the city police commissionerate, pertaining to a fraud involving a special assistant in the State Bank of India, MRC Nagar branch.
This was as per the directions of the Madras high court order dated November 2, 2017. As per the complaint, the accused Raji Basanth Row, the special assistant in SBI, had violated banking norms and procedures.

The complaint was given to Central Crime Branch (CCB) by SBI, Chennai zone on September 17, 2016. R Manoj complained about unauthorised withdrawal and non-payment of cash remitted by him into his account.

He had deposited Rs 5.3 lakh into his account on August 16, 2016 at Raji’s counter and obtained a counterfoil. However, the money was credited only three days later. Manoj told the bank that Raji had taken his signatures on the withdrawal slip and cheques and withdrawn a sum of Rs 4.7 lakh on August 18 and Rs 5.3 lakh on August 19. When asked, Raji told the bank that she had remitted an amount of Rs 10 lakh in Manoj’s account on August 24.

Later, the bank conducted a surprise check on August 23 to verify the cash balance. They observed that there was a cash shortage of Rs 5.02 lakh in Rs 1,000 denomination and Rs 85,000 in Rs 500 denomination, totalling Rs 5.87 lakh.

Along with Raji, the branch manager P Shanmugarajan was the custodian of the cash. Raji admitted to the cash shortage. Several similar irregularities in transactions of various deposit holders were observed by the bank’s investigation. In one case, deposits worth Rs 2.25 crore held by the St Thomas cathedral was put to another current account without their permission.