The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Telangana, on Thursday, arrested a former business agent of IDBI Bank over alleged fraud using forged documents and fraudulent loan disbursements amounting to ₹2.86 crore.

The accused, Chettipogu Suresh, was taken into custody from Bhadradri in Kothagudem district. He is accused of orchestrating the scam in collusion with Nallagopula Ramesh, former branch manager of IDBI’s Sathupally in Khammam, and two others, Thati Chandra Rao and Merugu Shiva Krishna.

According to a complaint lodged by P.H. Hashim, Deputy General Manager and Regional Head of IDBI Bank, the accused conspired to sanction ₹2.61 crore in loans under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme to 279 borrowers, and an additional ₹25 lakh under the Micro Loans Scheme to 26 individuals. The transactions took place between March 2015 and September 2016.

The fraud came to light during an internal audit for the 2018-19 financial year, which revealed irregularities in loan documentation and suspicious financial dealings between Suresh and Ramesh. A subsequent verification by Revenue authorities confirmed that many of the pattadar passbooks submitted with loan applications were forged and did not match official land records.

Suresh and his associates helped borrowers obtain loans by submitting fake revenue documents after bypassing mandatory verifications. Bank procedures were flouted by branch officials, an official said.