The mastermind in the Rs 60-crore West Bengal State Cooperative Bank fraud was arrested in Saudi Arabia after Kolkata Police issued a red-corner notice against him. The process for extraditing Arup Nag to India has already started, confirmed Pallab Kanti Ghosh, joint CP (crime).
“We have been trying to arrest Nag for 10 months. We took the help of Interpol in this respect. However, there is a set of procedures for such extraditions and this may take some time. Once he is in our custody, we hope to understand the conspiracy better and try and make more recoveries,” said a source in Lalbazar. Nag, though, is one of the racketeers and was not a bank employee at the time the scam was unearthed.
Earlier, five persons were arrested in connection with the fraud. Police identified three of them as Atindra Chandra Saha Sardar, an official of managerial rank at Punjab National Bank’s Selimpore branch, Nihar Chowdhury, a former employee at the same branch, and Gautam Gupta, who was accused in bank frauds on previous occasions, too.
The cooperative bank had lodged a complaint on March 19, 2013, alleging that it had received fake certificates for fixed deposits of Rs 20 crore each with the Hastings branch of UCO Bank, Gariahat branch of Indian Overseas Bank and the Selimpore branch of PNB.
Police sources said interrogations of the other alleged racketeers had revealed that Saha Sardar had received a commission of Rs 2.5 crore for the fraud though he confessed to having taken Rs 1 crore.
A suspended WBCS officer and his aide were also arrested in connection with the fraud. The bureaucrat, identified as Udayan Majumdar, is believed to have been an equal player in the scam, said investigators.
In March 2013, WBSCB lodged a complaint with Kolkata Police which stated that the bank lost Rs 60 crore in fraudulent transactions. Probe revealed that the co-operative bank was supposed to deposit Rs 60 crore in three different nationalized banks as fixed deposit but the money landed in the account of fraudsters.
“The fraudsters, with the help of insiders, sent forged letters and gave another account number to the depositor that was created under a fictitious name. As soon the amount was electronically transferred, they siphoned it off,” said an officer of the detective department.
Courtesy: TNN