PATHANAMTHITTA: Police have arrested the former manager of Thiruvalla Urban Co-operative Bank for committing investment fraud by using forged signatures. Police arrested Preeta Haridas this morning, who went absconding after the High Court rejected anticipatory bail. The High Court had directed Preeta to appear before the investigating officer after rejecting the anticipatory bail.

Preeta took the investor's six and a quarter lakh rupees with a forged signature. In 2015, Vijayalakshmi Mohan, a resident of Mathilbhagom, Thiruvalla, deposited three and a half lakh rupees in the Manjadi branch of urban cooperative bank. In October 2022, an application was made to withdraw six and three-quarter lakh rupees including interest. The employees bought the original documents but did not pay. On further investigation, it became clear that the bank employee had stolen the money by forging a fake signature. Although the police were approached, the investigation did not go well. The investor alleged that the money was stolen with the connivance of a senior CPM leader.