Lady bank official arrested for fraudulent withdrawal from customers’ accounts

GUWAHATI: A deputy manager, Olivia Dutta Choudhury of Bhangagarh branch of the IndusInd Bank in the city, who had decamped after allegedly siphoning off about Rs 3.70 crore from bank accounts of at least four customers, was arrested in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh by a team of Guwahati Police on Sunday.

City police received four FIRs from four cheated customers of the bank branch even as Olivia Dutta Choudhury, a deputy manager of the branch, disappeared on July 27.

She allegedly siphoned off Rs 63 lakh from the account of a physician, Biraj Jyoti Goswami while two other customers complained of withdrawal of Rs one crore and Rs 28 lakh respectively. “We have so far received four FIRs showing a total sum of Rs 3.70 crore being siphoned off by the woman,” Nath said.

“She was finally tracked down and arrested in Moradabad in UP on Sunday. She was being produced before a judge in Noida on Monday for transit remand in order to bring her to Guwahati,” Guwahati City Commissioner of Police HC Nath said.

While being arrested, the bank official was travelling in a hired vehicle with her seven-month old daughter, her mother and a maid. Police recovered RS 27 lakh in cash from her possession.

The Police Commissioner said the woman was involved in illegal and unauthorised withdrawal and transfer of money from the accounts of various customers since 2014, initially to meet targets of investments through various kinds of deposits, schemes and insurances in the bank.

Gradually, she started withdrawing cash from various accounts of customers through some fraudulent accounts including one in her husband’s name, the other in the name of her minor daughter.

Her husband Shankar Sinha, who was till recently with the Gangtok branch of the same bank, was already arrested last week.