NT Reporter
Panaji
The Economic Offences Cell (EOC) of Goa police has arrested Y Raghuveer, the former branch manager of Sahara India’s Vasco branch, in connection with a Rs 6.69 crore fraud case.
Raghuveer had managed to evade the authorities by hiding as a priest in a South Indian temple ever since the First Information Report (FIR) was filed in connection with the case in February 2018 based on a complaint filed by then zonal chief of Sahara India, Hyderabad, A K Tripathi.
Despite a significant change in Raghuveer’s physical appearance over the years, the EOC team successfully tracked him down and took him into custody.
The arrest follows a long-standing investigation into a criminal conspiracy involving Raghuveer and two other associates – former cashier K Y Sharif and field worker M D Zaki Khan. While one of the accomplices has since passed away and the other is cooperating with the investigation, the police have detailed a systematic misappropriation of funds that occurred between September 2004 and
November 2013.
The accused allegedly targeted funds from Sahara India, Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Limited and Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited.
According to the police, the misappropriation was executed through extensive falsification of account books and day records. Raghuveer and Sharif are accused of making false maturity payments to 273 accounts that were opened without any actual deposits in schemes of
the Sahara India firms, drawing these payments from two
nationalised banks.
Additionally, the trio allegedly secured fraudulent loan advances by forging 44 loan applications across 22 different accountholders, resulting in a total loss of over
Rs 6.69 crore.
