Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 47 properties, including 230 acres of land, 20 plots, gold, vehicle and bank deposits, totally valued at Rs. 5.74 crore, involved in the Term Deposit fraud pertaining to Chennai Port Trust. This was confirmed in a twitter post by the ED.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed chargesheet against 18 accused, including the then Indian Bank Koyambedu Branch Manager, in the case relating to an alleged fraud in pre-closure of Chennai Port Trust’s fixed deposits causing a loss of Rs 45.40 crore to the bank.
CBI had registered the case on 31 July, 2020 based on a complaint from Indian Bank, Zonal office-Chennai (North) against then Branch Manager, Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch, Chennai and others including private persons and unknown public servants/private persons on the allegations of cheating the bank by preclosing the Term Deposit Accounts (Fixed Deposits) standing in the name of Chennai Port Trust with the Bank’s, Koyambedu Branch in Chennai.
It was alleged that the accused committed the offence of criminal conspiracy, impersonation, fabrication of false documents, submission of forged documents, criminal misappropriation, Criminal Breach of Trust, fraudulent transactions etc. and caused wrongful loss of Rs.45.40 crore to the bank.
Searches were earlier conducted around 28 places in Tamilnadu and Kerala which led to recovery of several incriminating materials and evidence.
During investigation, 12 persons were arrested including two foreign nationals and then Branch Manager of the bank.
During investigation, it was found that the accused allegedly exploited the situation of investment of surplus cash available with Chennai Port Trust in the form of Term Deposits/Fixed Deposits with the banks for earning interest through limited tender process and also the willingness of the bank to attract investment in the form of term deposits.
It was alleged that the fraudsters exploited the said situation to their benefit by approaching the branch manager and also Chennai Port Trust and enticed/induced the Bank Manager to participate in the tender. It was further alleged that the Bank Manager in conspiracy with other accused accepted the proposed investment and actively participated in the bidding floated by Chennai Port Trust by quoting an arbitrarily higher interest rate for the proposed investment than the maximum allowable interest rate of the bank with the intention to win the bid. Indian Bank, Koyambedu branch was successful in five tenders floated by Chennai Port Trust and got the investment in the form of Term Deposits of Rs 100.57 crore (approx) during the period between March and May 2020.
It was also alleged that after the FD was created, the FD receipts (Bond) against the investment were handed over directly to the fraudsters by the branch manager instead of delivering the same in person to the investing organisation.
The accused instead of delivering the original FD receipts to Chennai Port Trust allegedly made forged FD receipts and submitted the same to CPT. Having original FDRs in possession, the original FDRs were submitted to the bank with a request to preclose it.
One of the fraudsters impersonated himself as an official of Chennai Port Trust and opened a fake current account through forged documents in the name of CPT so as to enable to transfer the amounts realized from the preclosure of FDs into the fake current account.
Subsequently, details of several bank accounts were collected from several persons and the money was transferred into their accounts based on the forged request letter in the name of Chennai Port Trust.
The alleged money received in different accounts were subsequently withdrawn and collected by the fraudsters and were shared on the basis of the prearranged commission. In that process, the fraud was committed one after another after each investment was made by the Chennai Port Trust and a total of Rs. 45.40 crore were swindled by the accused.