Two cunning women from Bhiopali and Kansar villages who cheated about 200 women on the plea of providing them bank loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana were finally arrested and forwarded to court on Wednesday.
“After a thorough investigation, we found the allegations to be true and arrested the culprits,” informed the IIC of Dhanuplai police station Tofan Bag.
As per information, the accused, Babita Bag of Bhoipali and Subasini Behera of Kansar villages, went to rural areas of Jujomura and Naktideul blocks and told the ladies there to avail Rs 1.5 lakh loan from SBI (ADB) Sambalpur branch under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.
They projected them as the SBI (ADB) staff. They further told the village women that they have to repay Rs 1 lakh only and the rest Rs 50,000 will be waived as subsidy.
For bank works and processing fees, they collected Rs 2,000 from nearly 200 women. They were also bringing the women to the bank located in the VSS Marg and asking them to seat outside the bank. After some time, they were coming from the bank and telling the ladies that their loans had been sanctioned. But they were never allowing the victims to meet the bank officials on some plea or the other.
But when the ladies didn’t get the loan even after four months of paying Rs 2,000, they suspected the activities of Babita and Subasini and contacted the bank officials directly.
They knew about the fraudulent practice of the duo from the bank and lodged a FIR at the Dhanupali police.
The duped women have further demanded return of their money.
Meanwhile, the SBI authorities have reacted to the reported incident saying that the SBI does not engage any middleman for sourcing or sanctioning of loans and cautioned the public against falling prey to such fraudsters.