Chennai Port Trust fraud case: CBI files charge sheet against 18 suspects

CBI had registered the case in July last year based on a complaint from Indian Bank, Zonal office-Chennai (North). 

Those who are named in the charge sheet were identified as  A Sermathi Raja, then Branch Manager, Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch, V Sudalaimuthu, V Manimozhi, N Ganesh,  J Selvakumar, A Arun, M Vijay Herald, M Rajesh Singh, S Siyadh,  S Afsar, MK Zakir Hussain, VS Arumugham, V Jegan, M Mohammed Siyad, M John Mento, SH Noor Mohamed, C Meldar and A Mathusoothanan.

 It was alleged that the accused committed the offence of criminal conspiracy, Impersonation, fabrication of false documents, submission of forged documents, criminal misappropriation, Criminal Breach of Trust, fraudulent transactions etc. and caused a loss of Rs 45.4 crore 

Searches were earlier conducted around 28 places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala which led to the recovery of several incriminating materials & evidence. During the investigation, 12 persons were arrested, including two foreign nationals, then branch manager, Indian Bank and they are presently in judicial custody.

During the investigation, it was found that the accused allegedly exploited the situation of investment of surplus cash available with Chennai Port Trust in the form of Term Deposits/Fixed Deposits with the banks for earning interest through a limited tender process and also the willingness of the bank to attract investment in the form of term deposits. It was alleged that the fraudsters exploited the said situation to their benefit by approaching the branch manager and also Chennai Port Trust and enticed/induced the bank manager to participate in the tender. 

It was further alleged that the bank manager in conspiracy with other accused accepted the proposed investment and actively participated in the bidding floated by Chennai Port Trust by quoting an arbitrarily higher interest rate for the proposed investment than the maximum allowable interest rate of the bank with the intention to win the bid. Indian Bank, Koyambedu branch was successful in five tenders floated by Chennai Port Trust and got the investment in the form of Term Deposits of Rs. 100.57 crore during the period between March and May 2020.

It was also alleged that after the FD was created, the FD receipts (Bond) against the investment were handed over directly to the fraudsters by the branch manager instead of delivering the same in person to the investing organization.  The accused instead of delivering the original FD receipts to Chennai Port Trust allegedly made forged FD receipts and submitted the same to the Port Trust.  

Having original FDRs in possession, the original FDRs were submitted to the bank with a request to pre-close them. One of the fraudsters impersonated himself as an official of Chennai Port Trust and opened a fake current account through forged documents in the name of Port Trust so as to enable to transfer of the amounts realised from the preclosure of FDs into the fake current account.  Subsequently, details of several bank accounts were collected from several persons and the money was transferred into their accounts based on the forged request letter in the name of Chennai Port Trust. The alleged money received in different accounts were subsequently withdrawn and collected by the fraudsters and were shared on the basis of the prearranged commission. In that process, the fraud was committed one after another after each investment was made by the Chennai Port Trust and a total of Rs. 45.40 crore were swindled by the accused.