Citi scam: Suspended bank officicials summoned

GURGAON: In a new twist to the multi-crore Citibank fraud case, the role of two suspended employees of Gurgaon branch of the global bank has come under scanner. Top police officers investigating the case said that they have served notices to the two employees - a branch manager and an investment officer - asking them to join investigation.
Citibank had suspended a few officials of Gurgaon branch including the two, Nitin Chawla and Amit Jalpuri, and the scam kingpin Shiv Raj Puri in December last year, after the scam was detected by the bank.Investigators said that they have found proof of continuous flow of cash from Puri's accounts to the accounts of these two officials.
"These transactions started from September 2009 when Puri started his scheme to dupe investors. This made us suspicious of their role in the scam. We have now asked them to join investigation," said a senior police officer.
Cops said that transactions totaling about Rs 18 lakh were made to the account of Amit Jalpuri, who was working as branch manager. Similarly, Rs 13 lakh was transferred to Nitin Chawla's account, who was an investment officer at this branch.
Meanwhile, police sources said that the Citibank has so far paid back premium to most of the duped investors. "About Rs 250 crore rupees has been returned to 35 customers who were duped by Shiv Raj Puri," said an officer.
Highly placed sources said that now the city police could tighten noose on the suspected employees of Citibank. There could be more arrests soon.
Police officers said that they were on the job to track down Puri's father Raghu Raj to get more details of the fraud and also to find whether more actors were involved in this crime. Already a city court has issued non-bailable warrant against his wife, Deeksha Puri. The couple is still missing.s