Odisha EOW Arrests 5th Accused In Loan Fraud Of Rs 4 Crore

Bhubaneswar: Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested one more accused in the Rs 4.13 crore bank loan fraud case.

The accused, identified as Md Sarfaraj Jawed, was nabbed from Bhubaneswar on September 5. He had fled to Midnapore district of West Bengal and was hiding there since long, an EOW release said on Wednesday.

A total of five persons have so far been arrested in connection with the fraud. Last month, Md Iftekhar Asif Khan was arrested for having allegedly availed three loans amounting to Rs 47 lakh against one LIC policy, showing him as the life assured when the policy actually in the name of one Pawan Kumar Gupta.

Earlier, the EOW had arrested two former employees, Sheikh Abdul Hayee, Prakash Kumar Mahapatra, of Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd and Md Mustakim Raza, a former LIC agent, for fraudulent sanction of loans between 2019 and 2021 on the complaint lodged by the bank. Hayee was the branch manager of the bank’s Nuapatna Branch while Mohapatra was the senior assistant.

In conspiracy with Raza, Md Sarfaraj Jawed and Khan, they had fraudulently sanctioned 25 loans against the security of fake/forged LIC policies. Of these, 8 loans amounting to Rs.4.13 crore could not be recovered, the release said, adding that they went on renewing the loans by sanctioning new loans.

Jawed had availed four loans amounting to Rs.1,58,65,000 against four LIC policies showing him as the life assured whereas actually policies stand in the name of many different persons like Pawan Kumar Gupta, Rajendra Kumar Sahoo and Sarfaraj Dilawar. Again, some of these policies have also been given as security by all the three loanees by changing their names as life assured.

Further investigation into the matter is underway, the release added.