The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of State’s Crime Branch arrested two officers of a nationalized bank besides a middleman on the charge of perpetrating Rs 3.68 crore loan fraud.

The accused persons- former Chief Manager Birendra Kumar Pattanayak and Field Officer Narendra Nayak of Punjab National Bank’s Bapuji Nagar Branch in Bhubaneswar and middleman Prakash Kumar Behera- were later remanded to judicial custody, said EOW officials on Wednesday.

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The accused persons had incidentally extended Rs. 3.5 crore loan in favour of one Lingaraj Enterprises on the basis of documents of another loan applicant.

The complainant Prasant Kumar Mohapatra was shell-shocked to find fraud committed against his mortgaged properties as loan recovery notice was served to him.

“Investigation revealed that during 2017, Mohapatra had deposited the documents of his two duplexes at Balianta at the instance of the accused Bank Officials, to avail a loan of Rs 10 Lakhs. But the accused Bank officials in conspiracy with the middle man Prakash Behera and others used the said documents of the complainant in pledging and sanctioning a loan of Rs 3.5 crores to M/s Lingaraj Enterprises beyond the knowledge and consent of the complainant”, the EOW informed in a statement.

The said loan account of M/s Lingaraj Enterprises turned to Non-Performing Asset (NPA during the year 2018 having an outstanding loan amount to the tune of Rs 3.68 crores. The complainant Mohapatra came to know about the fraudulent act of the accused persons only when he was served notice under SARFAESI Act by the Bank during November 2018.

It was found on investigation that, an amount of Rs 1.5 crores from the sanctioned loan amount has been diverted to the account of accused middleman Behera and an amount of Rs 10 lakhs was subsequently diverted to the account of the complainant to make him believe that the amount is his loan amount.

Again, several debit transactions have been made from the account of Behera. Further, many incriminating documents have been seized during the house search of accused Behera, and the same is under scrutiny.

The accused persons, earlier have also adopted a similar modus operandi in sanctioning a loan of Rs 2.5 crores for M/s. K.P. Solutions against mortgage of forged land documents and by impersonating the mortgagers. Investigation of the case is continuing to identify and nab the other accused persons involved in both cases, EOW concluded.