Hyderabad, July 02: A senior official of Andhra Bank was arrested Wednesday in connection with the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 5.4 crore from the account of AP State Finance Corporation (APSFC) nearly a month back. The multi-crore fraud came to light a few days back after the APSFC authorities noticed that Rs 5.1 crore was withdrawn from their account by a private firm. The APSFC holds an account in Andhra Bank.
The main accused, G V V S Vara Prasad, who floated the M/s Vishal Computer Peripherals and Solutions with an account number 030305001628, created a fake cheque of SFC for Rs 5.4 crore. The firm is also a fake one and no such firm existed, police said.
Vara Prasad presented the cheque (no 760585) in his bank account and the same was forwarded to the Cheque Processing Center of Andhra Bank
for clearance. The processing center cleared the cheque and the amount was transferred to the account of Vara Prasad and Rs 5.1 crore was withdrawn by the accused.
Later it was found that the firm was a fictitious one and the SFC did not issue any cheque to the firm.
After the fraud came to light, the Andhra Bank Abid Roads branch chief manager, Neti Sita Ramaraju, complained to the police that unknown persons have presented the cheque of Rs 5.40 crore payable to M/s Vishal Computer Peripherals and Solutions on the name of APSFC.
The main accused, Vara Prasad, surrendered before the Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths, who are investigating the case, a few days back.
“Following Vara Prasad’s confession, 55-year-old K Sarath Babu, the deputy manager of Andhra Bank, Cheque Processing Center, Saifabad, was arrested today and Rs 15 lakh recovered from him,’’ DCP (detective department) Dr R S Praveen Kumar said.
Sarath Babu is a resident of Vamsi Enclave in Moti Nagar and the amount was recovered from his house.
Police said Sarath Babu connived with the main accused and intentionally cleared the fake cheque for monetary gain. Sarath Babu would be produced before the court Thursday.
–Agencies–