CBI detains suspect in bank fraud in which CPT lost Rs 45 crore

CBI had named Indian Bank’s Koyambedu branch manager Sermathiraja, and private persons, Ganesh Natarajan and Manimozhi, as accused in the FIR registered last August under various IPC sections, including forgery, impersonation, cheating, criminal breach of trust and public servant taking undue advantage for dishonest performance of duty.

The CBI in its FIR said that the Chennai Port Trust selected the Koyambedu branch of Indian Bank for Rs 100 crore term deposit in the second week of March 2020. Within three days, one Ganesh Natarajan, who claimed to be the deputy director, finance, of Chennai Port Trust, opened a current account in the bank ‘with official capacity’ using fake documents and transferred half of the term deposit to the new current account.

He along with his associates withdrew/ transferred money to other accounts from the current account. The fraud came to light in May 2020 during the lockdown. Ganesh Natarajan’s associate Manimozhi along with one Selvakumar were caught red-handed by other bank officials when the two went there to withdraw money. The case was initially probed by Chennai CCB, which was later handed over to CBI due to the involvement of a large sum of money.

On Tuesday, Manimozhi was taken into custody from his house.