Indian Bank Manager Steals Rs 5.7 Crore For This Girlfriend He Met On Dating App; Investigation Is On

Branch manager of the Indian Bank branch in Bengaluru’s Hanumanthanagar was arrested for allegedly diverting Rs 5.7 crore to his girlfriend whom he met on a dating app.

The accused

The zonal manager of Indian Bank filed a complaint against the accused, Hari Shankar.

The court sentenced him to 10-day police custody.

Shankar’s colleagues, assistant branch manager Kausalya Jerai and clerk Muniraju were also named as suspects in an FIR.

They are being charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy based on a complaint filed by the zonal manager of Indian Bank, DS Murthy.

Honeytrap?

The alleged fraud is believed to have taken place between May 13 and 19. 

During the interrogation, Shankar claimed that he lost the money to cybercriminals who lured him into using a dating application.

According to the police, a woman customer deposited Rs 1.3 crore in her name as a Fixed Deposit and based on the same, she availed Rs 75 lakh loan against her deposit.

Tampering with documents

She submitted the relevant documents but the accused officials allegedly tampered with them and used them as security to release Rs 5.7 crore through multiple installments as overdraft.

After an internal probe, the bank found that the funds were diverted to 28 bank accounts of several banks in West Bengal and two accounts in Karnataka in 136 transactions.

Shankar allegedly roped in two of his colleagues to commit the fraud.

Their involvement is yet to be established.

Important finding

Another finding of the probe was that Shankar’s personal money amounting to Rs 12.5 lakh was also transferred to the accounts.

Indian Bank has been able to freeze a bank account to which Rs 7 lakh was diverted.

Shankar is claiming that he lost all the money to the woman he met online and also had  audio conversations as proof.

Police unconvinced

However, the police are not convinced.

An officer said that they are still skeptical since being a bank manager, he would have to be aware of cyber frauds.

They have confiscated his mobile phone and will probe further.