Odisha crime branch: Man held from Tamil Nadu for Rs 5 crore loan fraud

BHUBANESWAR: The Economic offences wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch arrested the owner of a private finance company for allegedly defrauding a bank of over Rs 5 crore. The accused, identified as S Kathiresan, was arrested from Trichy in Tamil Nadu, his native place.
EOW said Kathiresan was managing director of M/s Jagannatha Financial Services Ltd and chief executive officer of M/s KAS Foundation with an office in Bhubaneswar. He, on behalf of Jagannath Financial Services Ltd, had availed a loan of Rs 5 crore from the erstwhile Corporation Bank (now Union Bank of India), Bhubaneswar in 2009. Kathiresan had told the bank that the purpose of availing the loan was to lend money to a self-help group (SHG) and joint liability group (JLG).
Subsequently, the bank sanctioned Rs 5 crore loan in favour of M/s Jagannatha Financial Services Ltd. After a few months, the company allegedly failed to pay the monthly instalments to the bank. Two years after his loan was sanctioned, his account turned into a non-performing asset (NPA) on November 1, 2011 with the outstanding balance rising to about Rs 5.63 crore.
The EOW registered a cheating case against Kathiresan and his company on February 9, 2015 following a complaint lodged by K N Narasimha, former chief manager of the erstwhile Corporation Bank. Kathiresan was on the run since the case was registered against him.
“We found during investigation that the accused had disbursed the loan (which he took from the bank) to many non-existent agriculturists. He had submitted fabricated and false documents to the bank to avail the loan. His intention was to cheat the bank and misappropriate the huge loan amount,” an EOW officer said.