CBI books banker for fraud

 
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against M Muni Krishna,  Branch Manager, Union Bank of India, Belgaum Main Branch in Karnataka, and R B Madhusudan, the then managing director of a Belgaum-based firm, for causing a Rs 10.72-crore loss to the bank.

Documents seized

Extensive searches were conducted on the residential premises of the accused in Bangalore and the office of the firm at Gokak in Belgaum district. Several incriminating documents have been seized, the CBI said. Further investigation was continuing in the case.

CBI official told Deccan Herald that Madhusudan, who owned Ghataprabha Sahkari Sakkare Karkhana Niyamith, allegedly entered into a conspiracy with Krishna to get credit facilities in the name of his sugar factory by submitting false statements.

“The then managing director of the Belgaum-based firm in conspiracy with the bank manager and others  perpetrated a fraud on the Union Bank of India in the matter of sanction and availing of credit facilities to the tune of Rs 10.00 crore in the name of his firm by submitting false statements,” according to the FIR.

Illegal sale

Madhusudan, the Central Bureau of Investigation sources  said, had also “removed and sold the pledged sugar stock without bank’s consent and knowledge and not repaying the same. Thus, a loss of Rs 10.72 crore was caused to the bank,” said the investigating agency.

The CBI has, of late, lodged a series of corruption cases and charge sheeted many bank officials in Karnataka.

State Bank of Mysore  Chief Manager T V Reddy in Bangalore in complicity with a realty firm allegedly committed a housing loan fraud  of Rs 6.20 crore by sanctioning housing loans “on agricultural and industrial land.”

Loan fraud

In another case, two Canara Bank officers in complicity with the same number of Food Corporation of India junior employees and a small-time hotel owner — all based in Bangalore — allegedly siphoned off a Rs 1.17- crore loan amount from the  bank after supplying it with “95 fake salary slips.”

The main actors in “the conspiracy” include Canara Bank Branch Manager N Shivanna and another officer Shivananjaiah in Advance Department, both working in Corporate Consumer Finance Branch, Infantry Road, Bangalore.

The CBI has recently  charged a senior official of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with corruption when she was regional director in the Bangalore office of AICTE during 2008-09. The official is currently a joint secretary in the University Grants Commission, New Delhi.