SBI Officials Held For Misappropriating Funds

Hyderabad: Two senior SBI officials were arrested on Tuesday by the CBI for misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs 12.40 lakh by violating the RBI guidelines imposed during demonetization. Senior Special Assistant M. Sultan Mohiuddin and Deputy Manager IJ Rajasekhar were working at SBI's Buchireddypalem branch in Nellore district.

The CBI also recovered several incriminating documents from the possession of the accused. The bank officials were booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

"It was alleged that the officials entered into a criminal conspiracy with some private persons between November 15 and 25 last year when demonetization was in force," said the official. The official said Mohiuddin had availed four gold loans of Rs 9.70 lakh on "benami" names which were sanctioned by Sekhar.

"The SBI officials also sanctioned three more gold loans to other persons to the tune of Rs2.70 lakh and made the loan disbursements in cash in new currency exceeding the limits laid down by the RBI due to demonetization. Subsequently, two benami gold loans were closed on November 21, 2016 and November 25, 2016 by depositing demonetized currency notes. Thus, the accused abused their official position and misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs12.40 lakh," the CBI officer added.