CBI probes Bank of Maharashtra Rs 2.56 crore siphoning

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun a probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds worth around Rs 2.56 crore of the Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) from five of its branches in Pune.

The agency suspects that the funds were siphoned off using a private person’s savings accounts during 2009 to 2017 by a former bank officer under the scanner, who was posted at the branches, and other unknown persons as part of a criminal conspiracy, said agency sources. According to the CBI preliminary investigations, the funds were transferred from the bank’s branches at Sahakar Nagar, Hadapsar, Lavale, Lasurne and Talegaon Dhabhade. “The misappropriation of the funds were making fraudulent entries and illegally debiting amounts from the branch-general ledger accounts that were credited into the account held by a person’s account under the scanner with the Sahakar Nagar branch,” said a CBI source.

“The bank’s funds were then transferred to the personal accounts of the then bank officer’s two personal savings accounts,” he said. The agency will soon question the former bank officer for his alleged abuse of official authorisation and misappropriation and the private person in connection with the transactions being probed. The probe found that the former officer had allegedly personally introduced the private person while opening the latter’s savings account that was used for the suspicious transactions.

According to the CBI, around Rs 87,000 was transferred from the Sahakar Nagar branch, Rs 2.08 crore from Hadapsar branch, Rs 7.85 crore from Lavale branch, Rs 18.91 lakh from Lasurne branch and Rs 12.33 lakh from Taleg-aon–Dhabhade branch during 2009 to 2017.  The agency has registered a case under sections related to criminal conspiracy, misappropriation and criminal misconduct of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.