Cooperative bank secretary, staff arrested for Rs 1.64 crore fraud

Sleuths of the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) arrested the secretary and an employee of the Uthiramerur Cooperative Bank for their involvement in a Rs 1.64 crore fraud on Tuesday. The arrested were identified as Kalaiselvi (58) of Uthiramerur, secretary of the bank, and Vijayakumar (47) from the gold weighing department. A third suspect, Jayashri (51), who was the supervisor in the bank, is absconding. The police said three of them had taken imitation ornaments from 21 customers and approved gold loans for them. Recently, the bank’s higher officials came for an inspection and found that 21 customers had submitted fake ornaments. During further investigation, it was found that all the loans were approved by Kalaiselvi, Jayashri and Vijayakumar. A complaint was filed by Assistant Registrar Swathi at the EOW in Chennai. Based on that, sleuths took the three of them for inquiry. Sources said the trio confessed to having cheated Rs 1.64 crore so far. A case was registered and Kalaselvi and Vijayakumar were arrested and remanded in judicial custody. A search is on to nab Jayashri.