CCS books five private bank employees for Rs 70 crore fraud

Hyderabad Central Crime Station registered a case against five employees of Unity Small Finance Bank for allegedly siphoning nearly Rs 70 crore by manipulating loan sanctions and repayment records. The fraud, detected during an internal audit, reportedly involved around 1000 loan accounts.

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) officials have registered a case against five employees of Unity Small Finance Bank for allegedly siphoning off nearly Rs 70 crore by manipulating loan sanctions and repayment records.

The case was registered following a complaint filed by the bank after an internal audit revealed serious irregularities in loan processing and recovery transactions at its South Zonal Office on Lok Bhavan Road.

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As per information available, the fraud reportedly took place between 2023 and 2025, when the suspects – Regional Loan Management Manager Basam Nikhilesh Reddy, Area Business Managers Kiran Lingam, Sheikh Arshad Mohammed and Ajay Nevatia, and Relationship Manager Sai Shravan Kumar allegedly misused the bank’s internal login credentials to sanction loans to unauthorised individuals.

All of them were responsible for loan processing, monitoring and recovery operations and allegedly manipulated the repayment system to falsely show instalments as cleared.

The bank authorities recently found that in several cases, loan instalments were routed through financiers into certain accounts to show repayments, after which the money was allegedly withdrawn again. The diverted funds were further reportedly transferred to their relatives and associates.

Preliminary enquiry suggests that the combined fraud amount is estimated to be around Rs 70 crore across nearly 1000 bank loan accounts.

Police also reportedly found that several loans were sanctioned without proper verification of pledged collateral properties, exposing the bank to significant financial risk.

The irregularities came to light during the bank’s internal audit, following which a formal complaint was lodged with the CCS.

Police are investigating the financial transactions and assets acquired by the suspects.