# Bank manager arrested for forging collector’s signature in Suryapet 2026-08-20T05:23:51+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet A private bank manager in Suryapet has been arrested for allegedly forging the signature of district collector Tejas Nandlal Pawar on documents related to the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT) account. Koduru Raghu, branch manager of the private bank, is accused of forging the collector's signature to update the account's authorised signatory list after the transfer of a previous official. The fraud came to light on August 14 when DMFT section accountant K Gopi Reddy spotted irregularities in the signature and alerted authorities. The collector filed a complaint after personally verifying the documents confirmed the forgery. Police said Raghu had approached collectorate staff asking them to affix the official seal on the documents, falsely claiming the signature was genuine. Chivemula police registered a case under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita including cheating and forgery. The accused was arrested and remanded in judicial custody on August 16. Police said the exact purpose of the forgery is yet to be determined and they will seek police remand of the accused to investigate further. ## Indian Opinion Analysis District Mineral Foundation Trusts hold crores in mining royalties for local development, making their bank mandates a frequent target for fraud. In Telangana, collectors and DRDOs are joint signatories precisely to prevent unauthorised movements. The arrest of a private bank manager rather than a government official is unusual, most DMFT forgery cases involve collusion inside the collectorate, not external staff. Police custody will likely focus on whether Raghu acted alone or on instructions from someone who needed the account changed without the collector's knowledge. Watch for the bank's internal audit report, which may reveal how many other mandate updates Raghu processed without proper verification. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Led with the arrest and criminal case details, reported police and collector accounts verbatim without editorial commentary This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: District Mineral Foundation Trust, Suryapet, Tejas Nandlal Pawar Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/bank-manager-arrested-for-forging-collectors-signature-in-suryapet/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/bank-manager-arrested-for-forging-collectors-signature-in-suryapet/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/