Citibank fraud: Cops seize 81 accounts

A day after a Citibank executive was booked for siphoning off more than Rs 200 crore of account holders’ money, the police have seized as many as 81 bank accounts in the national capital region. Faizan Haider reports.

A day after a Citibank executive was booked for siphoning off more than Rs 200 crore of account holders’ money, the police have seized as many as 81 bank accounts in the national capital region. According to police, money from a joint account opened by Shivraj Puri, a relationship manager with the bank, was transferred to these accounts in various banks.

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“Initially, nearly R200 crore was invested by various people in the account opened by Puri in the name of his relatives — Premnath, Sheila Premnath and Diskha Puri. The money was then transferred to different accounts. We are concentrating on the Rs 200 crore which was transferred to various accounts,” Gurgaon police commissioner SS Deswal said.

Further investigation in the case has revealed that Puri had opened a consultant company — G2S Consultant — and had transferred all the money to that company’s account.

According to police sources, Puri first transferred the money to G2S account from where it got transferred to 81 different accounts.

“Around R3.85 crore is still there in those accounts and we have seized it. The rest of the amount could be in the market. As per the initial investigations, Puri’s intention was to put the money in the market and earn interest,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity. Surprisingly, no investor has come forward to the police.

“Besides, two more brokerage companies are involved in which Puri had transferred money from those 81 accounts. We have given two days time to the bank to provide us the transaction details with exact amount deposited in the account opened by Puri, besides the amount which was transferred to the 81 accounts,” Gurgaon police commissioner SS Deswal said.