Three more sent to prison for swindling Rs 33.89 crore from bank in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Three more people were arrested on Saturday for swindling Tamilnad Mercantile Bank out of Rs 33.89 crore. With this, the number of people arrested in the case has risen to seven. Another 26 accused are, however, still at large.
The city crime branch police identified the arrested as Krishnakumar, 52, a realtor, Selvakumar, 37, a civil engineer and Nandakumar, all residents of Selakarichal near Sulur.They have been lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison under judicial custody.
Earlier, J Lakshmi Prakash, assistant general manager, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Trichy Road branch, had in January lodged a complaint with the city crime branch police stating anomalies to the tune of Rs 33.89 crore was detected in the loans issued by former assistant general manager T Sivasubramanian, 55, of Thoothukudi, during his tenure between March 2018 and December 2019.
The complaint said Sivasubramanian had conspired with other staff of the bank and civil engineers to misappropriate Rs 33,89,39,840. During his tenure he had sanctioned 12 loans amounting toRs 33.89 crore to start nine poultry farms and two poultry feed manufacturing units.
In one of the cases, the complainant said, Gomathi, of Selakarichal near Sulur, had taken a loan of Rs 2.89 crore to buy new machineries for her spinning mill and construct a few buildings by pledging 1.71 acres land, the value of which was just a few lakh rupees.
When the complainant visited Selakarichal, he didn’t find any spinning mill and realized that Gomathi had duped the bank with the help of a realtor, civil engineers and bank officials, an investigation officer said.
“Likewise, Nagarathinam took a loan of Rs 4.24 crore to set up a poultry farm by pledging 9.91 acres land at Varapatti, while Venkatesh borrowed Rs 4.26 crore by forging various documents. The remaining cases aren’t any different either. None had set up poultry farms or poultry feed manufacturing units. The borrowers submitted forged documents and increased the guideline value of their lands by at least four folds. They also submitted photos of buildings, while there were none,” the complaint said.
The officer said it was Nandakumar who forged all the documents. Two weeks ago, the city crime branch police had arrested Sivasubramanian, Gomathi, Mahesh, a realtor from Vilankurichi Road, and K M Pandian, 37, a civil engineer from Sulur, in connection with the case. While Pandian came out on bail, the remaining three are languishing in the Coimbatore Central Prison.