Based on a complaint from Indian Bank, the agency had registered a case against the manager of its Koyambedu branch and two private persons a year ago for siphoning off Rs 45.4 crore by pre-closing the fixed deposits of Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).

The accused canvassed the bank and ChPT to open term deposits at the Koyambedu branch, and 45 term deposits (FD) were created between March and May 2020. Then, impersonating as the Deputy Director (Finance) of the port trust, one of them opened a fake current account in ChPT’s name.

He collected the term deposit receipt (bond) from the bank, and submitted forged bonds to ChPT. Within a few days, the accused presented the original bonds and pre-closed the FDs, and the money was first credited to the fake account before being transferred to 28 different accounts.

Finally, Rs 100.57 crore was transferred, but the fraud was detected by the time they withdrew Rs 45.40 crore and the remaining Rs 55.19 crore was frozen.

Searches were earlier conducted at 22 locations, including Chennai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Nagercoil, which led to the recovery of several documents and material objects, the agency said in a statement.