MADURAI: Three were arrested by Thoothukudi District Crime Branch police on charges of forging 22 cheque leaves and defrauding Rs 52.85 lakh.

The accused have been identified as A Muthuraja alias Muthuraj (45), office assistant at Keelur cooperative bank, M Paramasivan (50) of Ponnagaram and S Sethuramalingam (53) of TMB Colony, sources said on Saturday.

Investigations revealed that Muthuraj connived with the other two and forged the cooperative bank’s cheque leaves.

The trio approached 22 entrepreneurs and on the pretext of providing them with bank loans to venture into small businesses, obtained signatures on blank cheque leaves.

With these signed cheque leaves and Aadhaar card photocopies, the trio took a loan of Rs 52.85 lakh from a private firm. 

They threatened C Raja (33), owner of the firm, when he asked them to repay the loan.

Based on a complaint from Raja, the Thoothukudi DCB filed a case and arrested them.