8 booked, 3 held for swindling cash to the tune of Rs 1.70 crore

COIMBATORE: Two staff members of the Peelamedu Industrial co-operative housing society and a retired auditor were arrested on Saturday for misappropriation of funds to the tune of 1.70 crore from the society from 2003-2008. Police said, five more are yet to be arrested in connection with the case.
The arrested people were identified as K Ragupathi, 45 of Cheran Maa Nagar, M Shanthi, 44 of Veerapandi Pudur near Press Colony and Arumugam, 62, a retired auditorfrom Kovaipudur.Police said, Ragupathi and Shanthi were working as clerical staff at the society. Arumugam was auditing the society's transactions and supported the staff and secretary of the society in swindling the funds.
Deputy Registrar (housing) M Sekar lodged a complaint with the commercial crime investigation wing (CCIW) police inspector S Saraswathi.
Police said, the housing society was formed in 1955 and more than 2,000 people were members of the society. The members used to pledge property documents to the society for loans to construct houses.
The society received funds from Tamil Nadu Co-Operative Federation (Tanfed) under minimum interest rate. But loans given to members were at a much higher interest rate. "Around 55 members had pledged their property documents and obtained loan from the society in 2003. They returned the loan amount with interest in 2008 and when they asked for their property documents, the society secretary and staff refused to return them," said a police officer.
The members approached the Tanfed and came to know that the society secretary and staff pledged the documents with the Tanfed and collected crores. They fabricated documents and faked signatures on them. Tanfed told the members that the society has received 1.70 crore in loan amount by pledging their documents. And the documents would be returned after the loan is settled.
According to sources, the officials filed a petition before the CCIW police, one and a half years ago. The investigations was side-tracked due to political intervention after the society secretary Sivanandam used his influence. But the CCIW police registered a case against Ragupathi, Shanthi, Sivanandam, retired auditors Arumugam, Kulandaivelu, special officers Sundaram, Selvararaj and Krishnamurthy.
They were booked under Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 477 (A) (Falsification of accounts), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.