Berhampur: Manager of Madura Microfinance’s branch at Gandhinagar in Odisha’s Berhampur city, Rashmita Behera (35), has been arrested for over Rs 8 lakh alleged fraud.
According to sources, the microfinance company had opened its branches in different parts of the country, including Berhampur, to provide personal as well as group loans and later collected those in installments.
Rashmita along with Balaram Behera (27), another accused in this fraud and the centre manager of Berhampur branch, had sanctioned loans to the tune of lakhs of rupees to various people on behalf of the company. Later when the loanees repaid the amount, they did not deposit it in the company’s account.
While Rashmita defrauded Rs 3,13,418, Balaram did not deposit Rs 5,01,768 in the financial institution’s account. When senior officials learnt about Rs 8,15,186 fraud, they asked the duo to deposit the money following which Rashmita submitted a written application, stating that she would deposit the collected amount.
However, they deposited only Rs 15,000 instead of Rs 8 lakh, and after a few days, both of them quit office.
Following this, area manager Ramchandra Barik lodged a complaint with Town police on basis of which Rashmita and Balaram were arrested on Thursday. Further investigation is on, sources added.
