The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the State Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested a retired field officer of the State Bank of India’s Sakhigopal branch in Puri district and two railway employees in connection with a bank loan fraud case. loans to the tune of Rs 1.17 crore were availed from the bank using fake documents, EOW sources said on Thursday.
The arrested persons were identified as retired banker Sheikh Soudakat Ali of Binjharpur in Jajpur district and two railway employees, Rajat Kumar Mohanty of Retang Colony in Khordha district and Krushna Chandra Mohapatra of Sakhigopal Railway Colony in Puri district.
The whole matter came to light after the SBI’s Bhubaneswar Regional Manager lodged a complaint with the EOW of the Crime Branch here on November 5 last.
In his complaint, the Regional Manager had mentioned about the loan fraud which had taken place between the years 2003 and 2006 in Sakhigopal branch of the SBI. He had also given data about sanction and disbursement of 51 fake personal loans by the bank.
Acting on the complaint, the EOW had started its investigation and found involvement of field officer Ali, now retired, of the Sakhigopal branch.
According to the EOW official sources, Ali was the mastermind behind the fraud who sanctioned the loan to 51 people, including 14 railway employees.
During the probe, the EOW found that the certificates submitted by the railway employees were not genuine. “Ali had knowingly passed the loan after keeping the fake certificates. When the persons failed to repay the loans, the entire episode came to the notice of the Regional Manager after audit,” said the EOW officials.