Bank employee held for Rs eight crore fraud in Canara Bank

PATHANAMTHITTA: The accused in connection with the financial fraud to the tune of Rs 8.13 crore from the Canara Bank, has been arrested. The arrested has been identified as Vijeesh Varghese, a native of Aavaneeswaram and a bank employee. The police took him into custody from Bengaluru last evening.

His wife and two children were with him in Bengaluru. He committed the fraud from various accounts of the branch in Pathanamthitta. The fraud was committed in 191 transactions over a span of 14 months.

The bank officials began an investigation on the complaint that an account in which Rs 10 lakh had been deposited had been closed without the customer’s knowledge on February 11. Vijeesh has been in hiding with his family since February. He will be brought to Pathanamthitta today.

The police team from Pathanamthitta left for Bengaluru three days ago. The investigation team located his residence yesterday morning and arrested him in the evening. The preliminary assessment is that only Vijeesh is involved in the scam. Five employees including the bank branch manager were suspended for failing to identify the major fraud.