The District Crime Branch (DCB) police in the Nilgiris have registered a case against more than 32 persons, including officials of a nationalised bank, farmers, and a forest guard, for falsifying documents and procuring farm loans that were reportedly embezzled by the bank officials.
The fraud, which came to light in 2021, is said to have taken place in 2019, with bank officials and the forest guard said to have made off with the majority of the ₹ 3.65 crore that was disbursed as loans.
According to the police, the manager of Coonoor and Kil Kotagiri branches of the bank, Anuj Kumar, assistant manager Jayaraman and a forest guard attached to the Nilgiris division, Ganesan, had approached around 30 farmers and asked them to apply for agricultural loans by pledging their house and land documents. The men are said to have struck a deal with the farmers, promising to give them a third of the total loan amount disbursed, with assurances that the farmers would not have to repay the loan.
After the loan amounts were disbursed, the farmers received notices in 2021 from the bank demanding that they repay the loan. Realising that they were cheated, the farmers approached the DCB police in the Nilgiris and registered a complaint.
During investigations, the police learnt that 24 farmers in Coonoor and a few in Kil Kotagiri had conspired with the bank officials to perpetrate the fraud. They registered a case against the farmers, the manager and assistant manager of the bank, and the forest guard.
The police have so far arrested 13 persons in connection with the fraud, including assistant manager Jayaraman and farmers – Bhoopathy, Haldorai, Pramesh, Prakash, Saravanaraj, K.R. Babu, Rajasekar, Jeyabal, Ramakrishnan, Latha, Priya and Maheshwari.
They are on the lookout for Anuj Kumar and Ganesan, who are at large.
