Bhubaneswar: Economic Offenses Wing (EOWThe state crime branch here on Thursday arrested three persons, including a retired senior official and a current employee of Punjab National Bank (PNB), for allegedly defrauding the bank to the tune of Rs 3.68 crore.
The accused allegedly sanctioned a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to a company in 2017 by fraudulently using documents of another loan applicant. The accused were identified as Birendra Patnaik, former chief manager of PNB Bapuji Nagar branch, field officer. Narendra Nayak and a middleman, Prakash Kumar Behera, Senior PNB manager and scam co-accused Shrikant Prusty is absconding.
EOW stated that the accused allegedly sanctioned the loan in favor of Lingraj Enterprises Against mortgage of property (two residential duplexes) of another loan applicant, identified as Prashant Kumar Mahapatra, without his knowledge.
An EOW official said, “Mohapatra approached the bank in 2017 for a loan of Rs 10 lakh. He submitted all the required documents and mortgaged his two duplexes with the bank to get the loan.”
Thereafter, the accused bankers in connivance with Lingraj Enterprises illegally sanctioned a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to the company using the mortgage document of Mohapatra. The loan account of Lingraj Enterprises turned into a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2018, with the outstanding loan amount of around Rs 3.68 crore.
Out of Rs 3.5 crore, Behera got Rs 1.5 crore. He later transferred Rs 10 lakh to Mohapatra’s account, who was convinced that it was his sanctioned loan amount. Mohapatra was shocked after a few months when he learned that his land documents had been fraudulently used by the bank to sanction loans to Lingaraja Enterprises.
He said, ‘I have brought the attention of the officials of PNB to this fraud. But he ignored my request. I fully suspect that a big racket is involved in forging documents of genuine borrowers so as to provide financial assistance to others,” Mohapatra said.
The EOW said Patnaik and Prusty were booked for committing similar fraud in 2020. He had allegedly sanctioned Rs 2.5 crore to a private company using the land records of another person. When Prusty was then arrested, Patnaik got anticipatory bail.
The accused allegedly sanctioned a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to a company in 2017 by fraudulently using documents of another loan applicant. The accused were identified as Birendra Patnaik, former chief manager of PNB Bapuji Nagar branch, field officer. Narendra Nayak and a middleman, Prakash Kumar Behera, Senior PNB manager and scam co-accused Shrikant Prusty is absconding.
EOW stated that the accused allegedly sanctioned the loan in favor of Lingraj Enterprises Against mortgage of property (two residential duplexes) of another loan applicant, identified as Prashant Kumar Mahapatra, without his knowledge.
An EOW official said, “Mohapatra approached the bank in 2017 for a loan of Rs 10 lakh. He submitted all the required documents and mortgaged his two duplexes with the bank to get the loan.”
Thereafter, the accused bankers in connivance with Lingraj Enterprises illegally sanctioned a loan of Rs 3.5 crore to the company using the mortgage document of Mohapatra. The loan account of Lingraj Enterprises turned into a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2018, with the outstanding loan amount of around Rs 3.68 crore.
Out of Rs 3.5 crore, Behera got Rs 1.5 crore. He later transferred Rs 10 lakh to Mohapatra’s account, who was convinced that it was his sanctioned loan amount. Mohapatra was shocked after a few months when he learned that his land documents had been fraudulently used by the bank to sanction loans to Lingaraja Enterprises.
He said, ‘I have brought the attention of the officials of PNB to this fraud. But he ignored my request. I fully suspect that a big racket is involved in forging documents of genuine borrowers so as to provide financial assistance to others,” Mohapatra said.
The EOW said Patnaik and Prusty were booked for committing similar fraud in 2020. He had allegedly sanctioned Rs 2.5 crore to a private company using the land records of another person. When Prusty was then arrested, Patnaik got anticipatory bail.
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