Four held for defrauding bank of Rs 72 lakh

VELLORE (TN): Two employees of a nationalised bank in Ambur near here have cheated it to the tune of Rs 72 lakh by availing jewell loans in the name of various customers by pledging imitation jewelleries, police said.

Cashier of the bank Chandrasekar surrendered at a court in his native Salem while an office assistant Issac Leban and two of their accomplices were arrested here yesterday in connection with the fraud, they said.

The two employees had allegedly obtained signatures of over 200 familiar customers and used that to take jewell loans in their names under fictitious addresses two years ago.

The fraud came to light recently when the bank sent notices to the customers for auctioning the jewells as the loans were not repaid even after two years. The letters were returned to the bank by the postal department with the remark "addressees not found", police said.

It was later found that all the jewells were imitation and Branch Manager Pandiarajan lodged a complaint with the police.

The case was handed over to Crime-Branch CID wing whose investigation led to the arrest of the three persons. The cashier, who was absconding, surrendered in a Salem court.

All the four had been remanded to judicial custody.