K'taka: Two arrested for cheating banks

Bangalore, Aug 30: Two people were arrested here on the charge of cheating nationalised banks to the tune of Rs 1.60 Crore.

Police said yesterday that Govind Reddy and Shivaswamy, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, had availed loans from banks by producing duplicate sale deeds.

The culprits had cheated eight public sector banks, including Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore, Vijaya Bank, Double Road and Hanumanthanagar branches, City Finance, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank.

The duo were indulging in the crime since 1994 and were trapped, while making another attempt with the State Bank of Mysore. The officials scented foul play and alerted the police. Earlier, the duo had produced eight duplicate copies of site allotment letter, while seeking advance from the bank, which proved to be false.

The modus-operandi of the duo was to take advances from the banks against the fabricated documents of houses and house-sites, only to deceive the financial institutions.

Several complaints from banks were earlier received against the duo on similar crimes, police added.

UNI