CBI books three former SBI officials in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two separate cases against three former officials of State Bank of India (SBI) in Erode district and others for cheating the bank to the tune of Rs 7 crore.

According to one of the FIRs, M Karthik Kumar, deputy manager of SBI, Nambiyur branch, and manager M Sivahari, during their tenure in 2021-22 sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs 3.25 crore to ineligible people violating norms, which was detected by the internal audit department.

Further investigation by the fraud identification committee declared 30 Xpress credit loans as fraudulent.

The investigation revealed that those who availed the loans had forged the CIBIL scores, salary slips and their loan applications had been earlier rejected by other branches. Karthik Kumar's wife Ramya, sister Nithya, mother Mallika Devi were also included as accused as the pecuniary benefits Karthik Kumar received was further disbursed to them.

In another case, Abhijeet Kumar, the then branch manager of Ayyansalai, Erode, was booked for sanctioning 28 Xpress credit loans, 14 SME loans (business), 21 crop loans and one prime minister's employment generation programme (PGEMP) subsidy during 2021, thus causing Rs 3.87 crore to the bank and wrongful gains to him and others.

The cases were registered on the charges of forgery, abuse of official position, criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misappropriation and misconduct as per the directions of the Madras high court and taken up for investigation.