The three persons arrested include a former bank officer of Canara Bank and two others, all belonging to Bangalore in Karnataka. The RR cell PSI R.S. Sharma and his staff arrested the three who were travelling in a red Tata Sumo car. Police recovered eight mobiles from the three and when they were not able to answer questions about their work and residence, they were detained on suspicion.
On questioning they revealed that they had defrauded Vijaya Bank in Anand of Rs 1.48 crores. The mastermind of the bank fraud is one Ravikumar Annamalai, a resident of Bangalore, who was a former bank officer. Known as ‘Bank Ravi’ down south as he has swindled from many banks in South India.
Ravi planned to steal money from Vijaya bank using a banking instrument called Internal Bank Credit Advice. They opened a bank account with the help of Bharat Shah who has an Export Import company and enlisted the help of the bank manager to defraud the bank. They deposited large amounts of money through the instrument which was then forged by increasing the amount of the instrument by adding zeros to the total amount thereby increasing the money to be transferred manifold. For example if the bank received a instrument of Rs 500 from their own gang member, they increased it to Rs 5 lakhs and then the money was deposited to their bank account in the name of Mr Shah. The same amount was then withdrawn as soon as possible.
They opened the bank account on June 6, 2004 and withdrew Rs 4 lakhs, Rs 43 lakhs, Rs 54 lakhs and lastly Rs 45 lakhs in just two months. They were planning to withdraw Rs 60 lakhs but they were caught by the RR Cell in time.
The others arrested are one N.K. Mukhundan and B.N. Mohan both from Karnataka. There are other members of the gang who are still at large. These include Rahul Mukhundan, Dara Peer Mohammed, Bharat Shah and one Varghese from Mumbai. Apart from these the role of the bank manager Singraj is also under scrutiny. The case has been registered in Anand and investigations are on. |
