Man cheats bank of Rs 1.5 crore

Chennai: A 31-year-old man, a supervisor at a printing company, was arrested on Tuesday by the central crime branch officials for his involvement in systematically defrauding a public sector bank of Rs 1.5 crore by submitting bogus documents to avail of loans. The police were acting based on a complaint by the zonal manager of Vijaya Bank, Prafulla Reddy. Investigations revealed that P. Ramesh (31) of Alapakkam, in connivance with his employer, Prabhu Narayanan, had cheated the bank systematically. Prabhu Narayanan runs a printing company at Alapakkam, near Maduravoyal.

He had approached the bank’s branch at Virugambakkam and availed of loans to buy new machinery and vehicles to expand his company. Over the course of the past year, Prabhu had of availed seven machinery loans and five vehicle loans from the bank. The two encashed the demand drafts (DDs) issued in favour of leading car dealers by opening bank accounts in different banks with account names imitating the names of those dealers and depositing the DDs in those fake accounts.

According to an investigating official, Ramesh was the mastermind behind the racket. “He opened bank accounts and created fake vehicle and machinery invoices for purchase, which was submitted to the bank. Even the companies which sold the machinery to them were fictious and were created by their friends,” the official said. Ramesh was remanded in judicial custody and a hunt is on for Prabhu Narayanan and others involved in the case.