By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, Jun 6, 2015 : Odisha Police have arrested PK Iyer, Vice Chairman of the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle group, from a five-star hotel here in the wee hours on Saturday in connection with a bank fraud case.

Iyer was later produced before the special chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court here, which allowed the CBI to take Iyer. However, the court ordered that Iyer would be produced in the Nampalli court in Hyderabad by the CBI in the next 48 hours.

“The police nabbed Iyer following a specific input. Iyer was handed over to CBI after preliminary health check up at a local hospital,” Commissioner of Police RR Sharma said today, adding that Iyer had been staying there for the past two months under a fake identity.

Iyer, was staying in a room booked in the name of a woman, had been on the run after CBI issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

Earlier, he had stayed incognito in Kolkata and Port Blair before coming to Bhubaneswar, sources said.

CBI in July, 2013, had registered cheating cases against Iyer, who had in 2009-2011 allegedly availed multiple short- term corporate loans in 2009-2011 by submitting false financial statement.

Earlier this month, the Company’s chairman T Venkattram Reddy, was arrested by CBI in connection with the fraud along with his brother and managing director, T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, on charges of defrauding Canara Bank and causing it losses of over Rs 350 crore.

“The CBI was in the hunt for Iyer in connection with an alleged loan fraud to the tune of Rs 350 crore”, the DCP said.

“The accused had availed multiple short-term corporate loans by submitting false financial statements in,” he added.

The CBI had filed a criminal case against the three key promoters of the Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) – T Venkatram Reddy (chairman), T Vinayak Ravi Reddy (managing director) and PK Iyer (vice-chairman) – for allegedly defrauding Canara Bank.

Sources in the CBI had earlier alleged that the agency has found evidence that the DC promoters had “deliberately hatched a conspiracy to cheat and cause a loss to a tune of Rs 1,230 crore to the Canara Bank over a period of four years, from 2008 to 2012”.

“It is alleged that the company had submitted false and fabricated balance sheets concealing its actual borrowings from Canara Bank’s corporate lending branch, Secunderabad, and other banks and had also alienated the security hypothecated/mortgaged to Canara Bank. The total loss allegedly caused to Canara Bank is to the extent of Rs 357.77 crore (approx) as on 08.09.2012,” an earlier CBI release from Delhi had said.

“In furtherance of the conspiracy, the accused had availed Open Cash Credit limit with periodical enhancements and multiple Short Term Corporate loans aggregating Rs 1,230 crore (approximately) from Canara Bank, thereby availing excessive bank finance without adequate drawing power by allegedly submitting false and fabricated financial statements and by suppressing the borrowings taken from other banks,” it said.