Employees of a private company engaged by ICICI Bank to refill money in Bangalore ATMs routinely fed Rs 100 notes into compartments meant for Rs 500 and pocketed the difference, says a report in Mid Day.
A private security agency busted a currency mis-dispensation racket involving two cash operating executives.
The racket was busted following a series of complaints made by the ICICI bank customers about its ATMs dispensing less money.
Colonel Ramesh Raman, who heads SDB CISCO, which arranges cash replenishments for ICICI ATMs, initiated an investigation and found that Naveen Kumar and Manu Kumar, in-charge of Ramamurthy Nagar, Marathalli, Whitefield and Old Airport ATM respectively, were involved in the crime.
The investigation revealed that the duo, who used to load money in the machines and look after the accounting and the maintenance of ATMs, kept Rs 100 notes in cassettes meant for Rs 500 notes.
Hence, each time a customer withdrew cash, the machine dispensed Rs 100 notes instead of Rs 500. Naveen would pocket the difference.
Soon, the agency conducted an audit and discovered that Naveen and Raman had cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 1.54 lakh.
"The amount that the duo swindled was counted from all the ATMs they serviced," said Colonel Raman to Ashok Nagar police, who are on the look out for the duo as they have been absconding since a week.
Colonel Raman added that such instances not only result in financial loss, but also give the bank a bad name. Meanwhile, Ashok Nagar police have registered a case of cheating against the duo.
"This is the first time persons have loaded notes of wrong denomination into the machine, thus duping the bank and its customers," said a cop.
"I am not aware if ICICI Bank ATMs have been compromised in the manner you told us. We will check and revert tomorrow. We will need to check with the police station, business head and also confirm if the men involved are our employees," explained Charudatta Deshpande, head, corporate communications, ICICI Bank.
While the bank's spokesperson Mythili Rao said, "As soon as we noticed the discrepancy, we took up the matter with SDB CISCO. Thus, there was no loss to the bank or to our customers."
