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Krushi chief fled India before scam surfaced: CID

Syed Amin Jafri, Hyderabad

Four months after the multi-million rupee Krushi Cooperative Urban Bank scandal surfaced, the Criminal Investigation Department probing the case has made the startling disclosure that bank chairman K Venkateswara Rao fled India in July itself. His wife also left the country in August.

Consequently, the CID has sought the help of Interpol as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation to trace the couple and seek their extradition from any country.

In a statement on Wednesday night, the CID said its investigations so far revealed that Venkateswara Rao left the country by a British Airways flight bound for London from Mumbai on July 17. The CID inquiries also revealed that his wife Swarna Devi too left the country by Qantas Airways flight on August 9 but the destination was not known.

"It has now been established that Rao had left the country in a pre-planned manner before the scam surfaced, " the CID statement said. "The CID will further investigate into the flight particulars and the final destination of Rao and his wife. Efforts are also on to find out the travel agents who had arranged the tickets," it added.

The CID officials are also trying to ascertain the details of the visas and their validity from both the British and Singapore High Commissions. The CID had approached the US Consulate which clarified that no visas was issued to Venkateswara Rao during that period.

After the case was registered in mid-August, the CID sent out look-out notices at all international airports in the country. CID officials probed the details of foreign trips Venkateswara Rao had made during the year 2000 and based on them, started a physical verification of the voluminous list of embarkation cards of passengers bound for foreign destinations from Mumbai and Chennai international airports.

The CID teams searched for the accused at several places in Andhra Pradesh, as well as other states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They also examined 86 friends and relatives of Venkateswara Rao at different places in the country but failed to trace him.

It may be recalled that the Krushi Bank scam came to light after the bank failed to refund money to thousands of depositors. The police registered a case at Mahankali police station on August 15 and later handed it over to the CIC on August 22. During the investigations by the CID, several directors and officials of the bank either surrendered or were arrested.

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