Three Held In PNB Fraud Case In Odisha
Bhubaneswar, Jan 26: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW ) Bhubaneswar has arrested two PNB officers and a middle man in a cheating case of over Rs 3.68 crore. EOW sources here on Wednesday said former PNB Chief Manager Birendra Kumar Nayak, Field Officer Narendra Nayak and a middleman Prakash Kumar Behera were arrested on January 24 from Bhubaneswar and forwarded to the court of SDJM Bhubaneswar in connection with a cheating case.
The case was registered on the basis of a written complainant filed by one Prashant Kumar Mohapatra on the allegation that the accused bank officials of PNB Bapujinagar branch in criminal conspiracy with the partners of M/S Lingaraj Enterprises and others had extended business loans to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore in favour of Lingaraj Enterprises against mortgage of duplexes of the complainant without his knowledge.
The property documents were actually deposited by the complainant in the bank for availaing loan of Rs 10 lakhs for him. Investigation revealed that during 2017, Prashant Mohapatra had deposited the documents of his two duplexes at Balianta at the instance of the accused bank officials to avail loan of Rs 10 lakh. But the accused bank officials in conspiracy with the middleman Prakash Behera and others used the said documents in pledging and sanctioning a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to M/S Lingaraj Enterprises without the knowledge and consent of the complainant.
The loan account of the Lingaraj enterprise turned to NPA during 2018 having outstanding loan amount to the tune of Rs 3.68 crore. The complainant came to know about the fraudulent act of the accused after he was served a notice by the bank during November 2018. Investigation found that Rs 1.5 crore from the sanctioned loan amount has been diverted to the account of accused middleman Prakash Behera and Rs 10 lakh was subsequently diverted to the account of complainant to make him believe that the amount is his loan amount.
Several debit transactions has been made from the accounts of Prakash Behera. Many incriminating documents were found during the House search of Prakash Behera. The accused persons have earlier also similar modus operandi in sanctioning loan of Rs 2.5 crore for M/S K P Solutions against mortgage of forged land documents and by impersonating the mortgages. Investigation of the case is on to identify and nab the other accused involved in both the cases.