BENGALURU: Officials of a public sector bank and private investment firms are said to have colluded with each other to allegedly illegally transfer over Rs 13 crore from the account of a deceased woman by opening an account in her name at the branch of the same bank in Tamil Nadu.
The ongoing investigation by the Siddapura police in the city revealed that the officials of State Bank of India (SBI) and employees of private investment firms have transferred Rs 13.15 crore from the account of Shakuntala Venkatappa Krishnappa from the SBI branch on KR Road in Basavanagudi to another account in her name at Manali in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.
Shakuntala died on August 1, 2019, while the account in Tamil Nadu was opened on March 25, 2022, showing that she had personally visited the branch and opened the account. The culprits allegedly forged the documents and her signature, though there was a mention about her death in the account. After the amount was transferred to the Manali branch, it was split into accounts of around 25 beneficiaries, it is said.
Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge Muralidhara Pai B on March 19 rejected the anticipatory bail petition of one of the accused, Susan Saritha D’Souza alias Suman, working in the Operations Department of Aditya Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund.
Victim’s charitable trust helped the needy
The prosecution told the court that the investigation revealed that Susan joined hands with Accused No.12, Sandeep, in updating mutual funds in the name of the deceased, forged her signatures and concocted documents.
She gave information to Sandeep about investments of the deceased in various companies. For this, she received Rs 1 lakh from Accused No 1 through Google Pay.
In the complaint to the Siddapura police against officers of SBI, Integrated Enterprises (India) Private Limited and other unknown persons, the complainant Malathi Vaidyanatha, wife of former High Court judge Vaidyanatha, said the victim had registered a charitable trust in the name of BS Venkatakrishnappa and Shakuntala V Krishnappa through which she was helping the needy.
Malathi is the executor of Shakuntala’s will. Shakuntala invested the money in mutual funds and shares through Integrated Enterprises and the returns were used by the trust to help those in dire need of money.
Shakuntala died on August 21, 2019 and had made a will before that. Malathi, who is the third executor since the first executors were no more, visited the bank recently and to her shock, crores of rupees had been transferred without the notice of the trustees or the executor of the will.
Malathi had filed the complaint with Siddapura police on April 28, 2023.