TRICHY: Five officials of Axis
Bank, including a manager at its branch in Kattur, were booked by police on Saturday for swindling more than 12 lakh from the account of a farmer who had availed of an agricultural loan. The victim, Ramadas, had obtained the loan by pledging his house and land. Among the five officials, two have been arrested, while search is on for the remaining accused.
The arrested have been identified as Pravin Kumar, 27, manager of agriculture section of
Axis Bank, Kattur branch, and Perezhilen, 24, assistant manager at the bank's Pudukkottai branch.
Ramadas, a farmer hailing from Solagampatti village, had approached the Keela Rajaveethi branch of Axis Bank for an agricultural loan of Rs 14 lakh. He was asked to open a savings account at the same branch to get the loan amount. On opening the account, he was offered a passbook, ATM card and cheque book.
However, according to police, the bank officials who assisted him planned to swindle the money and managed to get a cheque leaf and an RTGS form with his signature. After the loan got credited to his account, the farmer found Rs 12.48 lakh missing when he went to withdraw Rs 20,000. He approached the bank only to be informed that he had withdrawn the sum through a cheque. Following the incident, Ramadas lodged a complaint with the district crime branch office. Police investigation revealed a collective conspiracy by some bank officials to swindle the money from the account of Ramadas. On Saturday, police arrested Pravin Kumar from the bank who had transferred the money to a fake account in the name of Marimuthu in Thanjavur.
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