Port Blair, Jun 27 (PTI) In a major breakthrough, the managing director and an employee of the Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank Ltd (ANSCBL) were arrested on Friday night in connection with a loan irregularities case, police said.

The accused have been identified as managing director K. Murugan and bank staff Kalaivanan, they added.

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This comes a day after three persons were arrested on Thursday, all linked to alleged irregularities in sanctioning of loans.

"So far we have arrested five persons for suspicious bank transactions from their accounts over the last few years and approving loans without following banking rules. During interrogation, they revealed the involvement of other senior bank officials in the scam. We have seized some documents. Probe is underway," he said.

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On May 15, an FIR was lodged against the vice-chairman of the bank and former Congress MP Kuldeep Rai Sharma in connection with the same irregularities.

"During investigation, we found a few interesting money trails to the bank accounts of a driver (employee of one of the accused in the bank loan scam), a tea stall owner at Chouldari in Port Blair and a mechanic. We are exploring all angles."

Apart from Sharma, others named in the FIR include the cooperative bank's former chairman, board members and directors/officials of the bank and several beneficiaries.

There are allegations that the managing committee of the ANSCBL overlooked the recommendations of the loan screening committee and ignored the CIBIL report and mandatory documents while sanctioning loans, a police source said.

Police had received a complaint from the deputy registrar of the cooperative societies (HQ), which alleged gross irregularities in sanctioning loans to various people by the lender.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)