The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Friday arrested now-suspended chief branch manager Badri Raj Subedi, branch chief Umesh Bahadur Rana, credit officer Furnamgel Sherpa and office assistant Tara Prasad Kafle. Customer Dharma Raj Bhandari has also been arrested.

The police said the bank staffers were involved in issuing guarantee without adequate collateral in collusion with customers.

In a guarantee issuance, the staffers hiked the collateral valuation by Rs40 million. They were found to have issued guarantee against negative bank balance and charged less commission, a CIB statement said.

They were also found to have issued guarantee without taking approval from the higher authority and putting false signature of high-level officials.

Subedi has been charged with issuing guarantee by accepting less valuable collateral, charging less fees and issuing the guarantee against negative bank balance.

Rana has been accused of issuing guarantee against negative bank balance, while Sherpa and Kafle face the charge of forging signatures to issue the guarantee to Bhandari, who faces charge of acquiring guarantee against low-valued collateral in collusion with the bank staffers.

Meanwhile, the police also nabbed Mina Shrestha, the then head of credit department at NIDC Capital Markets Limited, for banking fraud. She was arrested last Thursday. She has been charged with inflating the collateral value while issuing credit worth Rs30.7 million for 11 individuals. She colluded with the then chief executive officer and borrower for the purpose.

According to the police, the financial institution has not received any repayment of the principle or interest so far from the 11 people.

The police also arrested a borrower Ram Prasad Kadel, who had been on the run, after getting credit worth Rs6.29 million in his family members’ name in collusion with NIDC Capital Markets’ staffers.

Kadel has also been charge with influencing the then chief executive officer and credit department head, and acquiring the loan by putting in low-valuation collateral.

The culprits were presented to the Patan Appealed Court on Sunday, and the court has remanded them 10-day police custody for investigation.