CBI books bank officials in Andhra Pradesh for swindling Rs 4.56 crore

VIJAYAWADA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against the officials of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Mangalagiri branch officials for allegedly closing four deposit accounts of Arogya Bhadratha scheme of the State government and withdrawing the amount fraudulently.

The CBI registered a case under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation and criminal misconduct, on Wednesday following a complaint by the bank officials.

The complaint was lodged by B Venkata Narayana, chief regional manager of the IOB Regional Office in Vijayawada against six officials and other unknown persons and public servants for misappropriating the deposits of Arogya Bhadratha.

According to the First Information Report, the secretary, Arogya Bhadratha is maintaining savings bank (SB) account with IOB, Mangalagiri branch. The Arogya Bhadratha has four deposits of Rs 90 lakh each and Rs 68.84 lakh in the savings bank account totalling to Rs 4.28 crore. 

All these four accounts were opened by Arogya Bhadratha secretary N Chandrasekhar. According to the complaint, the bank officials and some others entered into a criminal conspiracy and closed the four deposit accounts of the Arogya Bhadratha without any request from the account holder and withdrew cash partially on various dates and transferred the amount to unrelated accounts after routing through various bank accounts. 

"The accused also wrongfully transferred the funds from the SB account of the secretary, Arogya Bhadratha, to other accounts and withdrew the amount," the complaint said.

The CBI registered a case against regional resource manager, IOB regional office, Vijayawada, Heli Veepuri, assistant manager, IOB Mangalagiri branch, V Suresh, bank clerks M Praveen Shyam and M Adinarayana, assistant managers D Narasimha Murali and K Sireesha and others and took up investigation.