Cooperative bank branch manager, cashier held for ₹3 cr embezzlement in Amritsar

The branch manager, Rakesh Kumar, and cashier, Ram Kishore, of Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank Ltd, Tarsika, have been arrested for embezzling ₹3 crore, police

The branch manager, Rakesh Kumar, and cashier, Ram Kishore, of Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank Ltd, Tarsika, have been arrested for embezzling ₹3 crore, police said on Wednesday. Another two accused, Sukhdev Singh and Sukhbir Singh (secretaries of the cooperative society of the bank) are absconding.

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Anritsar Central Cooperative Bank Limited manager Kulbir Singh had lodged a complaint against the four accused. “The bank conducted an investigation after suspicious transactions were reported in which large sums of money were being transferred into private accounts from a company’s account. Rakesh Kumar, Ram Kishore, Sukhdev Singh and Sukhbir Singh were fraudulently transferring this money and these private accounts were opened by them.”

“Since the bank manager and the other three accused were employees of the bank, they used internal information about bank accounts to commit this fraud. To date, over ₹2.82 crore had been embezzled and we expect the fraud amount to go up,” Kulbir added.

“To date, bank managers have recovered ₹68 lakh from bank accounts where these accused had fraudulently transferred this money. Police are investigating to zero in on details of other accounts in which money was transferred,” said investigating officer sub-inspector Manjit Singh of Tarsika police station.

A case has been registered against the four accused under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by banker), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.