Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Wednesday that it has detained K Ramakrishna, the former president of Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank Niyamitha, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, in connection with the misuse of over Rs 1,000 crore in public deposits. Meanwhile, the ED has been granted four days of custody of Ramakrishna by the Bangalore Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge.
The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was filed by the ED on February 29, 2020, based on a FIR filed by the Banaswadi Police Station in Bengaluru on February 7, 2020, under different sections of the IPC and the Karnataka Protection of Interest Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004.
“During the investigation, it was found that officers and employees of the bank siphoned off money deposited by the public. The bank promised to give higher interest rates to the depositors which were not in the line with the prevailing market rate. The money deposited by the depositors was advanced/siphoned off to various persons including employees of the bank without obtaining proper security of the loans. The bank officers created fictitious loan accounts and transferred the money to these accounts which, in turn, was transferred to overdue loan accounts for evergreening purposes to show strong financial health of the bank,” the ED said.
The Enforcement Directorate has already attached the accused parties’ moveable and immovable possessions worth Rs 45 crore.
According to the current audits and investigation reports, a total of Rs 1,792 crore has been misappropriated, said Minister of State for Co-operation ST Somashekar on Tuesday.
Responding to a question raised by Congress MLC UB Venkatesh, Somashekar said that 41,778 depositors were cheated and till date Rs 709.99 crore has been released to the depositors. Rs 5 lakh each has been given under the Union government’s Deposit Guarantee Scheme.
Following the direction of the Karnataka High Court, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an administrator to monitor the Guru Raghavendra bank. Moreover, properties of 26 former board of directors have been attached by the ED and further probe is underway.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
