Friday, July 29 2005 14:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A whopping sum of over Rs 1653 crore has been locked in 6614 cases of fraud reported by nationalized banks in the last three years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in Lok Sabha today (July 29, 2005).

Such frauds relate to misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery, irregularities in foreign exchange transactions, besides some other types of frauds relating to Internet banking and credit cards, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in reply to a question.

He also informed that an amount of Rs 495.89 crore has been recovered in the last three years.

The three worst affected banks are State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank.

Although the amount involved in the frauds has come down to Rs 600.16 crore in 2004-05 from Rs 653.50 crore in the previous year, the number of cases has gone up considerably to 2663 from 2207 in the same period.

In 2002-03, the frauded amount stood at Rs 399.55 crore in 1744 cases, Chidambaram said.