PANAJI: Crime Branch police on Thursday arrested a manager and a clerk of a nationalised bank on charges of allegedly swindling depositors’ money to the tune of Rs 2.44 crore. The accused have been identified as Udit Narayan, the branch head, Bank of Baroda, Anjuna branch, and Swagatika Mohanty, the clerk. Both have been suspended by the bank.
The accused have been charged for cheating, misappropriation and under the Prevention to Corruption Act. The accused allegedly swindled money by illegally transferring the depositors’ money from one account in the bank to another and subsequent withdrawal.
Both the accused have been placed under suspension after the internal inquiry conducted by the bank revealed their alleged wrongdoing. Apart from these two accused, there is also the alleged involvement of head cashier Sada Gaonkar (also under suspension), informed police.
A complaint in this regard was lodged by Deputy General Manager, Bank of Baroda. Based on the complaint and preliminary probe, the Crime Branch police has registered the FIR. Police inspector Ninad Deulkar is investigating the case under the supervision of Superintendent of Police Karthik Kashyap.
According to police, along with these three bank officials, they suspect that private individuals are also involved in the fraud and more arrests are likely to be made.
According to police, Narayan is the main accused, who in connivance with the other accused persons swindled the deposits to the tune of Rs 2.44 crore belonging to at least 6 to 7 accountholders. The incident was reported to have occurred between March 2015 and December 2015.
Explaining the modus operandi, police said that the accused transferred the deposits from one account to another account and subsequently money was withdrawn. Based on a complaint lodged by an accountholder, the Panaji head office initiated an inquiry which found that the accused, without any documents, carried out money transfer and misappropriated the same. The accused were placed under suspension and a complaint was lodged before the Economic Offences Cell, which was subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch.