The Economic Offences Wing in Bhubaneswar has arrested three people, including two Punjab National Bank (PNB) officers, in connection with a Rs 3.68 crore loan fraud. The accused have been identified as former PNB Bapuji Nagar Branch field officer Narendra Nayak and former chief manager Birendra Kumar Pattanayak, as well as middleman Prakash Kumar Behera. The arrest occurred on January 24.
According to a complaint filed by one Prasant Kumar Mohapatra, the accused bank officials, in criminal conspiracy with the partners of Lingaraj Enterprises and others, extended business loans totaling Rs 3.5 crore in favour of one Lingaraj Enterprises against mortgage of the complainant’s residential duplexes without his knowledge.
The complainant deposited the aforementioned property documents in the bank in order to obtain a loan of Rs 10 lakh for himself.
The investigation revealed that in 2017, Mohapatra deposited the documents for his two duplexes at Balianta at the request of the accused Bank Officials in order to obtain a Rs 10 lakh loan. However, the accused bank officials conspired with the middle man Prakash Behera and others to pledge and sanction a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to Lingaraj Enterprises without the complainant’s knowledge or consent.
Lingaraj Enterprises’ loan account became delinquent in 2018, with an outstanding loan amount of Rs 3.68 crore. The complainant Mohapatra learned of the accused persons’ fraudulent actions only after the Bank served him with a notice under the SARFAESI Act in November 2018.
During the investigation, it was discovered that an amount of Rs 1.5 crore from the sanctioned loan amount was diverted to the account of accused middleman Behera, and an amount of Rs 10 lakh was subsequently diverted to the complainant’s account to make him believe that the amount was his loan amount.
Several debit transactions have been made from Behera’s account. Furthermore, many incriminating documents were seized during the house search of accused Behera, and they are being investigated.
Previously, the accused used a similar method to sanction a loan of Rs 2.5 crore for KP Solutions against mortgage of forged land documents and by impersonating the mortgagers. The investigation into the case is still ongoing in order to identify and apprehend the other accused persons involved in both cases.
Prasanta Patnaik