A 45-year-old former staffer of a leading bank has been arrested by personnel from the Pulianthope police station for allegedly cheating several senior citizens by promising high returns on their investments. His target were those who had retired from service.
Police identified the accused as D. Arikumar, of Chetpet. He was working as a business development manager at the bank until 2018 and handled fixed deposits. He was relieved from service due to retrenchment. He was arrested by the police with the help of the cyber crime cell at Pulianthope, following a complaint from Chandramathi Asirwatham, a senior citizen who allegedly lost ₹5 lakh to the fraudster.
Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Rajesh Kannan said, “After a thorough investigation with help from the cyber crime cell, we traced the accused. Our investigation revealed that he collected the data of persons who had fixed deposits with his former employer.”
His modus operandi was to target retired senior citizens who lived alone. He approached them under the pretext of seeking investment in a finance firm and promised them a high rate of interest on their investment. He collected ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh from each and indulged in share trading and other investments. The accused allegedly swindled over ₹5 crore.
Mr. Rajesh Kannan said, “Our preliminary investigation revealed that he had cheated several senior citizens in a similar fashion.”
The case was transferred to the Central Crime Branch for investigation. The police seized ₹1.4 crore investments in equity shares, 50 sovereigns of gold jewellery, a two-wheeler and two cars.
