A retired principal who allegedly obtained an amount of Rs.42,055,000 from the People’s Bank fraudulently, has been arrested by the Public Complaints Investigation Department of the CID.

The suspect is said to have obtained loans from two bank branches located in Kandy and Gampola under the ‘Gurusetha’ loan scheme introduced by the People’s Bank.

The arrested suspect is a 69-year-old retired principal from Hindagala.

According to the CID, the principal has prepared fake documents and fraudulently obtained this amount from the two branches on 26 occasions.

However, with the disclosure of this fraud, it was reported that doubts have arisen in the banking sector whether there are shortcomings in identifying recurring errors in the People’s Bank’s internal data system.