SBI officials help cops zero in on Puri accomplice

The Gurgaon police have managed to reach the alleged kingpin of the R300-crore Citibank scam — Sanjay Gupta — with the help of a team of State Bank of India (SBI) officials. Faizan Haider reports.

The Gurgaon police have managed to reach the alleged kingpin of the R300-crore Citibank scam — Sanjay Gupta — with the help of a team of State Bank of India (SBI) officials. The SBI team had found that all the 81 accounts seized by police were linked to the associate vice-president (accounts) of Hero Corporate Services, a Hero Group entity.

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Police officials said experts scanned the transactions in these accounts in the last six months and found that the main beneficiary was Gupta, who held two accounts in Axis Bank. “Two firms — G2S and BG finance company — both owned by Gupta were the main beneficiaries of all cross transactions that took place in this year. The experts told us that Puri used to keep the money generated as interest in these two accounts,” said a senior police officer who didn’t wish to be named. Sources said Gupta, a resident of 2287, Palam Vihar, had floated these companies in May 2010.

“The companies were registered as consulting firms but did not have any office. The companies’ accounts were with Axis Bank and we have seized R20 crore,” he added.

Gupta, 45, has an experience of 20 years in the financial sector. He reportedly told Puri to invest the money in the market.

“He had assured Puri that he would bring in corporate investments and Puri’s job was to transfer the fund to various other accounts. From the 18 accounts of Puri, which were seized initially, a lot of cross transaction had taken place. Later, we found that at the end of all transactions, the money used to come in two Axis Bank accounts,” police said.