Citibank scamster, Shivraj Puri, in police net

Citibank employee Shivraj Puri, who allegedly scammed about Rs 400 crore from 20 high profile accounts while working at the bank’s Gurgaon branch, was taken into police custody on Thursday.

Police said that Puri surrendered after noon after evading the police net for three days since the fraud was exposed.

Puri, a customer service executive, is accused of defrauding top clients by promising high-return investment schemes which in reality were non-existent. The loot was then transferred to fictitious accounts.

Cases of cheating and forgery have been charged against Puri, Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal said. Authorities have also frozen about 18 accounts worth Rs 4 crore so far.

The scam comes close on the heels of the bribery-for-loan racket unearthed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which led to arrests of senior officials of a number of banks and finance institutions.

The officials of organisations, including LIC Housing Finance, Bank of India and Central Bank of India, are said to have taken bribes for sanctioning heavy corporate loans bypassing protocol.

Assuaging apprehensions on the banking system when quizzed on the Puri incident, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “The law will take its own course and it involved just one individual.”