Bank Manager Diverts Rs 5.7 Cr Depositor Money To Girlfriend's Accounts, Says He Has Been Duped
In a rather bizarre case, a bank manager who tried to please his online girlfriend with diverted from the bank has been left shocked to learn that he too has been fooled.
Police in Karnataka's capital Bengaluru have arrested a bank manager for allegedly diverting as much as Rs 5.7 crore deposited by customers to accounts of a woman he knew only through a dating app.
The fraud came to light during internal audit
The accused, identified as Hari Shankar, who was working as the manager of Indian BankĄ¯s Hanumanthnagar branch was arrested on Wednesday.
Two of his colleagues, assistant branch manager Kausalya Jerai and clerk Muniraju have also been named as suspects in the case filed by Indian Bank's zonal manager DS Murthy.
The fraud that took place between May 13 and 19 came to light during an internal audit of the bank of a transfer of Rs 5.7 crore from a depositor's account.
A woman had recently opened a fixed deposit in the bank and had deposited Rs 1.3 crore and availed Rs 75 lakh as a loan against it.
Shankar used the documents submitted by the customer and used them to release Rs 5.7 crore to multiple accounts.
Bank accounts in Karnataka and West Bengal
Out of this, there were 136 transactions to two bank accounts in Karnataka and the rest were to 28 accounts of different banks in West Bengal.
In addition to the Rs 5.7 crore Shankar diverted from the bank, he also transferred Rs 12.5 lakhs from his own account to the 'girlfriend'.
So far the Indian Bank has only been able to freeze one account to which Rs 7 lakhs was transferred.
Bank manager duped by fraudsters?
Following his arrest, Shankar admitted to his crime and told the police that he was duped by cybercriminals.
According to Shankar, he came across his 'girlfriend' through a dating app. He has never met the 'girlfriend' and the only communication that he had with the woman was through audio calls.
However, police are fully convinced by the claim of a bank manager that he was duped by cybercriminals.
Ą°Being a bank manager and aware of cyber frauds, we do not believe his claims. We have collected his mobile phone and will probe further,Ąą a police officer said.
Shankar who has been booked for cheating and criminal conspiracy has been sent to 10 days of police custody.
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