Man Cheats Bank of Rs 1.5 crore, Held

CHENNAI: Sleuths from the Central Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested a 31-year-old man suspecting him to be a part of a racket that defrauded the public sector Vijaya Bank to the tune of `1.50 crore by availing 7 equipment and 5 car loans using forged documents. A hunt is on to nab the other members of the gang, including the main beneficiary.

The racket came to light when the bank lodged a complaint with documents submitted while availing the loans, now classified as Non Performing Assets (NPA), were found to be fabricated.

Police said Prabhu Narayanan, the proprietor of SP Printers in Maduravoyal, his friends and relatives had obtained several business development loans from Vijaya Bank, but defaulted on repayment. The gang opened fictitious accounts in different banks under the name of leading car dealers. After obtaining car loans, they then encashed the Demand Drafts (DD) issued by the bank in favour of these dealers.

Preliminary investigations revealed that one Ramesh, working at Ragava Printers in Maduravoyal as Supervisor, is the mastermind behind the racket.

Ramesh opened the bank accounts and created fake vehicle and machinery invoices for purchase which was submitted to the bank for the sanction of the loans.

 He had also prepared fake receipts as proof for the purchase and delivery of the vehicles and machinery without actually buying them.

They also opened bank accounts in the name of the fictitious companies and withdrew the loan money, sanctioned for purchasing the machinery.

Investigators have found out that companies that apparently sold the machinery to Prabhu were also fictitious, created by the racket to cheat the bank.