Bengaluru (Karnataka): The Bengaluru police arrested the bank manager of Indian Bank's Hanumanthanagar branch on Friday as he diverted Rs 6 crore to a young woman with whom he got acquainted through a dating app. The bank manager, along with two of his subordinates, had taken a loan from a depositor's account at the bank.
The zonal manager of Indian Bank, DS Murthy, lodged a complaint with the police against against the branch manager Hari Shankar, and the court remanded him in police custody for 10 days. The police have also named Shankar’s colleagues assistant branch manager Kausalya Jerai and clerk Muniraju as suspects in the FIR. According to police sources, the alleged fraud took place between May 13 and May 19 and came to light during an internal probe into the release of Rs 6 crore in the name of a bank customer. Shanker alleged that he lost the money to cyber criminals, who tempted him to use the dating app.
According to the Hanumanthanagar police, he has been arrested for allegedly taking Rs 6 crore of loan on the depositor Anita's FD account. The woman customer deposited Rs 1.3 crore in her name and recently availed Rs 75 lakh as loan against it. She submitted the deposit documents with the bank to avail the loan. The suspect officials allegedly teamed up with the documents and used them as security to release Rs 6 crore in multiple instalments as overdraft.
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The bank in its internal probe revealed that money was diverted to 28 bank accounts of several banks in West Bengal and two accounts in Karnataka in 136 transactions. Shankar allegedly misused the two of his colleagues to commit the fraud and their involvement is yet to be established. Harishankar had registered himself on the dating app four months ago. After that, he got acquainted with a young woman. Shankar, impressed by the young woman's messages, when the latter had asked for money, he had transferred Rs 12 lakhs to her account. Police registered a cheating and criminal conspiracy case against Hari Shankar and two of his subordinates on June 17. During the interrogation, the manager confessed to the crime.
