Guwahati, Sept. 21: The CBI has registered a case in connection with fraudulent transfer of over Rs 4 crore from two government accounts of the Nagaon deputy commissioner at a branch of IDBI Bank in central Assam's Nagaon district.

An official source said the case (RC 172017A0004) was registered at the CBI's anti-corruption branch here recently based on a complaint lodged by the IDBI Bank authorities about embezzlement of approximately Rs 4.24 crore through unauthorised transactions in two government accounts (a savings account and a current account) of the deputy commissioner of Nagaon at its branch on Old AT Road at Haiborgaon in January this year.

The case was registered under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 477A (falsification of account) of the IPC and Sections 13(2) and 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The source said the IDBI Bank, in its complaint said an internal inquiry in May had revealed that Ratnam Bhattacharjee, the then head of Nagaon branch, and Rupam Shyam, the then asset officer of the branch, had allegedly committed the fraud. Both officials were placed under suspension by the bank authorities on June 1.

'According to the bank, the internal inquiry was ordered after the fraud came to light in April this year after a new branch head joined the Nagaon branch,' the source said.

He said a preliminary inquiry revealed that the two accused officials had credited savings and current accounts of some customers by debiting suspense accounts of the branch with remarks such as loan disbursement without creating separate loan accounts.A suspense account is an account in the books of a bank in which funds are entered temporarily before allocation to the correct or final account.

'Subsequently, to nullify these entries in the suspense accounts, the accused officials debited the two government accounts of the deputy commissioner of Nagaon without any authorisation and transferred the amount to the suspense accounts through real time gross settlement (RTGS). These transactions are against acceptable banking practices and seem to be intentional and not due to any human error,' the source said.

More persons could be involved in the fraud and a thorough probe will throw more light on it, he added.

'The IDBI authorities said the bank's direct liability arising due to unauthorised acts of the two accused officials is Rs 4,24,14,296 plus loss of interest of Rs 51,720,' he added.

This is the second major bank fraud to have come to light in the state this year following the multi-crore rupee IndusInd Bank fraud, which was unearthed in July. Following investigation, the police found that Olivia Dutta Choudhury, the customer service manager of the IndusInd Bank's Bhangagarh branch, had allegedly siphoned off nearly Rs 3.7 crore from the accounts of at least four customers and then transferred the money to her husband's bank account through RTGS.

City police had said that during interrogation Choudhury has admitted to misappropriating the bank's funds since 2014.

These instances of involvement of bank insiders in perpetration of fraud have raised concern among customers about the safety of their money deposited in banks.