Bank Fraud

Rs.69 Crore Fraud in State Bank of Sikkim


➡️ Click here to join our Whatsapp Group

In a shocking turn of events, a staggering amount of Rs. 69 crore has been embezzled from the State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) by three senior officials of the bank. The SBS has wasted no time and filed a First Information Report (FIR) with the CID Sikkim Police against the accused officials, all of whom are currently stationed at the SBS head-office in Gangtok.

Fortunately, the SBS authorities have managed to recover a significant portion of the embezzled money. However, there is still approximately Rs. 19 crore that remains to be recovered, according to the bank authorities.

The Managing Director of SBS, PW Bhutia, revealed that the misappropriation of Rs. 69 crore was detected during the routine checking of bank accounts. SBS has implemented a robust mechanism to detect and trace such wrongdoings, and this system proved effective in uncovering the embezzlement.

While incidents like these are not uncommon in financial institutions, the SBS’s vigilance and prompt action enabled them to trace and recover the majority of the embezzled funds, amounting to Rs. 50 crore – Rs. 52 crore, as informed by Bhutia.

The remaining portion of the embezzled funds is believed to be held in other sources, leading to the filing of an FIR with the CID Sikkim Police for its immediate recovery.

The SBS has named the three accused senior bank officials responsible for the alleged embezzlement of over Rs. 69 crore from the bank’s records. The accused officials are Dorjee Tshering Lepcha, the general manager (operations); Tsewang Dorjee Lepcha, the assistant manager (IT); and Tilak Rai, the senior accounts assistant. All three individuals are stationed at the SBS head-office in Gangtok.

According to sources, these senior SBS officials colluded with others to defraud the bank. They reportedly utilized various accounts to carry out the scam and even opened fixed deposits under the name of a State government assistant engineer. Additionally, the complaint states that they invested their ill-gotten money from the SBS in various immovable and movable assets.

The CID has registered a case against the accused officials under IPC sections 34, 120B, 409, 420, and 477A, along with relevant sections of the IT Act 2000.

In the midst of these developments, the Managing Director of SBS reassured the people of Sikkim and the bank’s customers not to panic. He emphasized that all necessary actions have been taken to recover the stolen funds promptly. Furthermore, he highlighted that the SBS currently holds assets worth Rs. 10,000 crore, making the misappropriation a relatively small portion of the bank’s overall operations.

The focus of the SBS is also on ensuring stringent action and punishment for the officials involved in the embezzlement, aiming to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future, as stated by the Managing Director.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *