Shivraj Puri, Citibank employee, on run after looting Rs 400cr

Police are still looking for the Citibank employee who allegedly scammed about Rs 400 crore from 20 high profile accounts while working at the bank’s Gurgaon branch.

Shivraj 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 Tiwari, Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal said. Authorities have also frozen about 18 accounts worth Rs 4 crore so far.

Airports have been notified to prevent Puri from leaving the country.

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.”