Ranchi, Aug. 18: A clerk who also worked as a computer operator at the Union Bank of India, Muri branch here, was arrested by the CBI for siphoning off Rs 15 lakh.

According to CBI sources, the bank employee, identified as Manish Kumar Burman, had worked in connivance with a few other bank staff to pull of the fraud. The other accused are yet to be nabbed.

Meanwhile, raids conducted by the CBI at Burman?s Muri residence have unearthed Rs 9 lakh in fixed deposit receipts.

?The computer operator had devised a unique modus operandi to rob the bank in which he was employed. He targeted those fixed deposits, which were encashed before the date of maturity. After a customer took out the money he had invested as a fixed deposit, before the date of maturity, Burman and his accomplices continued to claim the interest that was being given by the bank as if the deposits were active. The interest were credited to half a dozen fake accounts opened at the same bank,? revealed the CBI sources.

The sleuths added that the entire operation had been going on for at least two to three years but it was carried out so smoothly that no other bank official suspected anything.

?The foul play was not noticed by any other bank officials. The accounts were created in the names of Burman?s father-in-law, brother-in-law and other relatives,? said a CBI officer.

The fraud came to light during a routine check carried out by the bank. It was then that they realised that lakhs had been credited as interest on behalf of customers who had closed their fixed deposit accounts before the maturity date. The case was then handed over to the CBI.

The agency sleuths pointed out that even though the banks had been computerising their branches in the rural areas, it had not been able to cut down on incidents of corruption and fraud.

One of them cited a case at the State Bank of India, Main Road Ranchi branch, where Rs 1.21 crore was found missing in September 2003.

Though the cash officer and the branch accountant were suspended charge-sheeted, not a single penny has been recovered.