CHENNAI: The city police have arrested a mother-son duo for allegedly defrauding a private bank of Rs 1.76 crore by manipulating documents and misusing internal systems.

The arrested persons were identified as S Mahendrakumar (34), who worked as a sales manager at the bank’s Aminjikarai branch, and his mother S Vijayalakshmi (54) – both residents of Tiruvottiyur.

The Bank Fraud Investigation (BFI) wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) initiated investigations based on a complaint from the bank’s zonal manager. According to police officials, Mahendrakumar abused his position and official access to customer insurance policies by altering their surrender value certificates. Using these forged documents, he repeatedly obtained overdraft (OD) loans in the names of unsuspecting customers.

His mother Vijayalakshmi is alleged to have coordinated the transactions and helped route the funds, the police said. The fraudulent loans, credited multiple times, caused a cumulative loss of Rs 1.76 crore to the bank and its customers, according to a complaint from the bank.

The duo was arrested on Saturday, produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody. Top brass of the city police commended the efforts of the BFI wing in securing the accused.