Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha, arrested five persons, including a home guard, for their alleged involvement in Rs 3.82 crore bank fraud.
The accused have been identified as Dhananjay Prusty of Cuttack’s Sahebzada Bazar, Nirapada Karmakar of West Bengal’s Hooghly and residing in Cuttack’s Lalbag, Surendra Kumar Beura of Choudwar, and Niranjan Satpathy and Rinarani Satpathy, both of Bhadrak’s Bhandaripokhari area.
They were arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by Regional Manager, SBI Regional Office, Cuttack, Bhabani Shankar Mohanty.
The investigation revealed that Prusty and Beura formed a firm Maa Ganga Enterprise on December 3, 2022, and later registe
red it in the name of Jonaki Karmakar, wife of Nirapada Karmakar, and one Sarat Chandra Swain. The accused then applied for Rs. 3.50 crore loan from the bank by fraudulently mortgaging a property at Saheed Nagar belonging to Swain, using fake Aadhaar and PAN cards. The land documents were also forged and deposited in the bank as an equitable mortgage.
The loan amount was diverted to the accounts of different firms held in the name of Prusty and Beura but controlled by Karmakar. The money was also diverted to the account of Satpathy and others associated with the fraud.
The fraud came to the fore Swain sold the land to one Pradeep Kumar Beuria and Birendra Kumar Mohanty, and the bank held up the sale proceeds.
During the search of the rented house of Niranjan Satpathy, who is working as a Home Guard in Bhubaneswar, at Canal Road in Chintamaniswar, Rs.51,100 in cash, different sale deeds, RoR, Aadhaar, PAN, ATM card, pass book were seized along with fake Indian currency notes of Rs 200, Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 10 denominations, amounting to Rs5290.
“A report pertaining to the seizure of the FICN has been submitted to SP, STF for registration of a separate case. A few machines used in the goldsmith workshop were also found in the rented house,” the EOW release said, adding that further investigation is underway.