A branch manager of ICICI Bank and his accomplices met their performance targets for five years by withdrawing money from the bank accounts of customers at the branch in Rajasthan.
They allegedly withdrew the money to create an illusion of opening new fixed deposits, current and savings accounts, the Economic Times reported. After someone came to know about their misdeeds, the said person started blackmailing those officials.
As a result, the branch manager and his aides withdrew more money from the bank accounts of customers to pay an Udaipur-based individual. According to Rajasthan Police officials, a total of ₹2.5 crore was paid to the individual as hush money.
Amit Kumar, superintendent of police, Pratapgarh, told the website that preliminary probe revealed that the branch manager and his aides carried out the heist due to the pressure of meeting performance targets. They had been creating overdrafts against fixed deposits and used the money from it to open new current, saving and FD accounts, a term called ‘Entry and Reverse Entry’ in banking parlance.
After few days, these newly created accounts would be closed and the money would be routed back to the original accounts. This operation had been running for several years.
An ICICI Bank spokesperson assured the customers that they will not lose any money, adding that the bank has a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud and the employee involved has been suspended. The bank also filed a complaint with the police.
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₹2.50 crore embezzled: Raj Police
While the Rajasthan Police said that a total of ₹2.50 crore was embezzled, the bank officials claimed it was ₹2 crore. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed on February 7, which carried out a thorough interrogation of the branch manager. According to the ET report, investigation into the operation ad misappropriation of the money was carried out and the SIT consulted the affected bank holders and analysed their bank statements.
The Pratapgarh SP said that the bank manager had been running this scam and no proper records were maintained. According to the police official, at least 62 bank accounts used for the alleged scam had been frozen. These accounts had a balance of ₹62,71,490.
Besides seizing ₹46 lakh in cash, the police also confiscated the gold kept as lien for a gold loan taken by the individual who was blackmailing the bank manager. This Udaipur-based individual had 19 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion etc against him.
The investigating officials also found a paper trail evidence that help them to conclude that ₹45 lakh siphoned from the bank was used by this individual to partly finance the purchase of a ₹3 crore farmhouse.
How did the ‘scam’ surface after so many years?
According to the ET report, the alleged scam surfaced after a bank employee noticed that ₹70 lakh was missing from her friend’s bank account. The concerned friend is believed to be privy to the wrongdoings and was allegedly told that this sum would be withdrawn and returned to his account after 3-4 days.
But the money was never returned to the bank account and raised a suspicion. The employee confronted the bank manager but did not get a satisfactory reply. As a result, she reached out to the police which led to the revelation, SP Kumar told the website.