8 Indian Overseas Bank staff behind bars for job scam

Selvaraj A, TNN | Aug 2, 2014, 06.40AM IST

CHENNAI: The CBI on Thursday arrested eight Indian Overseas Bank employees holding key positions in a staff union for malpractice in the recruitment of sweepers and messengers at the bank's headquarters in Chennai.

Investigators said the accused forged SSLC certificates of the recruits to show that they had failed Class 10 and were not overqualified for the jobs. 

After CBI raids at their residences early this year, the employees were placed under suspension. "It was a sudden development in the case," a CBI officer said. "The arrested people had recruited sweepers and messengers in Chennai, Tuticorin, Karaikudi, Vellore, Salem and Thanjavur in 2010." Those arrested are IOB union state general secretary Chinni Krishna and assistant general secretaries Umapathy from Vellore, Rangarajan from Karaikudi, Swaminathan from Thanjavur, Balasubramanian from Chennai, Kandasamy from Salem, Thomas Balan from Tuticorin and Soundararajan from Puducherry. All of them are senior clerical cadre employees in various branches of the bank. The arrested were produced before the 11th CBI court in Parry's, where the judge remanded them in judicial custody till August 14. They were taken to the Puzhal prison.

Based on an input that many candidates managed to get appointment using fake certificates, CBI's anti-corruption branch in Chennai had registered a case and conducted searches on the bank's establishments in different parts of the state in May. 

IOB general manager (human resources) Indira Padmini said, "The matter is with the CBI. The people involved in the case were already under suspension." Inquiries revealed that many daily-wage workers had managed to get appointment letters with assistance from some union leaders after paying money. 

The officials said the allegation was that as many as 951 people recruited as daily-wage workers in the bank for several years were made regular in 2010. The educational qualification for the post of sweeper and messenger was SSLC failed. Many applicants who had passed SSLC or Plus-Two produced fake certificates claiming that they had failed in Class 10.