Top IDBI officials arrested in Rs 743 crore fraud, 3 more cases filed

Hyderabad: The CBI, Visakhapatnam, registered three cases against 52 persons including top-level officials of the IDBI Bank for a pisciculture loan fraud to the tune of Rs 743 crore.

The FIRs registered by the CBI names chief general manager of IDBI, R. Damodaran and his DGM, Battu Rama Rao, along with 24 aggregators and 26 valuers. The cases were registered under section 120B, 420, 468, r/w 471 of the IPC and section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

Soon after the cases were registered, the law enforcement agency officials conducted searches at 18 locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

According to CBI officials, Damodaran and Rama Rao had allegedly enhanced the Kissan Credit Card loan limit to '5 crore, though the maximum limit of KCC loans is only '25 lakh.

“Damodaran and Rama Rao hatched a conspiracy and misused their official position by directing the branch level officers to submit positive reports regarding the 677 borrowers in all the three cases pertaining to the Rajahmundry, Palangi and Bhimavaram IDBI branches, as arranged by the aggregators," officials have quoted.

During the preliminary inspection by the vigilance units of the bank and then again by the CBI, it was found that the whole process was fraudulent as there were no fish ponds.