The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against 446 persons, including the former chairman and managing director of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), union leaders, other staff and recruits, who were allegedly involved in criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption.
The chargesheet was filed on behalf of the CBI by its special public prosecutor M.V. Dinakar before S. Jawahar, special judge for the CBI. The judge, after taking the chargesheet on file, issued summons to the accused for their appearance before the court on April 3.
The CBI alleged that the personnel and administrative officials of IOB, Central Office, in collusion with the office-bearers of the All Indian Overseas Bank Employees Union (AIOBEU), recruited messengers / sweepers over and above the approved vacancies and that too ineligible candidates.
Criminal conspiracy
According to the chargesheet, the president of the union, L. Balasubramanian, and general secretary, S. Srinivasan, with the other accused, including the then chairman and managing director (CMD) M. Narendra, hatched a criminal conspiracy in appointing sweepers and messengers in various centres across the State from 2013 to 2015.
Investigation revealed that Mr. Narendra accorded approval on a note, which led the union leaders to recruit ineligible candidates. Though the education qualification for the post was a pass in Standard VIII or a fail in the SSLC examination, many of the recruits were over qualified and some of them had previously worked in foreign countries.
They had produced fake certificates claiming that they had failed in Standard X. The accused were charged under various Sections of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.