Govt. to confiscate Krushi Bank Directors' properties

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 18. The State Government has ordered confiscation of the properties owned by the Chairman and Directors of Krushi Bank, and asked the District Collectors not to allow transfer of these properties by way of sale or registration.

The Government has also asked the Reserve Bank and the Department of Cooperation to complete the audit of the bank's accounts within a week by employing special auditors, if necessary, and the police to intensify the search for the chairman, Mr. K. Venkateswara Rao, and the 10 directors.

These steps were announced to the press by the Home Minister, Mr. T. Devender Goud, after a high-level meeting on the bank fraud held in the Secretariat, attended by Mr. Y. Krishna Murthy, RBI General Manager, Mr. P. Srinivas, its Deputy General Manager, and Mr. P. Ramulu, City Police Commissioner. The documents and account books of the bank, which were examined by the investigating police team, have made startling revelations. According to details given to the Minister, the bank has 10,912 depositors as on date and the amount deposited by them totalled Rs. 31.68 crores. But then, the loans advanced by the bank also amounted to almost the same-Rs. 31.76 crores. It has been found that the bank has given loans to different persons and organisations without security and that most of the loanees have approached the bank for the benefit under benami names. Finally, the bank has been left with a balance of mere Rs. 6.75 lakhs.

Mr. Goud described the economic offence as ``a big and horrifying fraud,'' and responding to incisive questioning, said that the investigating team was delving into the documents relating to the loans given to trace out the beneficiaries behind the fictitious names. Asked if extradition of the chairman (who was believed to be abroad) was sought, the Minister said that the law would take its course. The police would have nabbed all the accused by now but for the wide publicity given to the case, alerted by which they ``disappeared.'' He stated that the Government would not sleep till a breakthrough was achieved on their whereabouts resulting in the arrests, and the progress of the case would be reviewed next week again.

The Home Minister said a close watch was being maintained on other such urban cooperative banks and steps were also taken to provide safeguards to the funds invested by the public and lying with them. The RBI and the Department of Cooperation were asked to work out a mechanism through which the interests of depositors could be protected.

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Section  : Southern States
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