Odisha EOW Arrests Another Accused In Rs 16.71 Cr Bank Fraud Case

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police on Friday arrested another accused in the Rs 16.71 crore bank fraud case.

The accused identified as Saroj Nayak has been booked under Sections 409/420/467/468/471/120-B of the BNS and Section 66 (C) of IT Act, the EOW stated.

The arrested accused will be produced before the Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack today. This case was registered on the written report of Shiba Sundara Sahoo, Regional Manager, State Bank of India, RBO, Bhubaneswar.

The complainant alleged that accused (persons) by entering into a conspiracy availed 161 Xpress Credit Loans amounting to Rs 16.71 crore from Jaydev Vihar (139), Patia (5), Raghunathpur (11) and Jharpada Branch (6) branchehs of SBI during November 2022 to October 2023, by producing fake/fabricated employment records as employees of Phonepe Pvt. Ltd.

Nayak holds a diploma in engineering and runs an agency in the name of ‘Omm Maa Construction’.

“He is a part of the larger conspiracy hatched out by the fraudsters and was arranging prospective loanees for Xpress Credit loan and collecting the personal credentials like Aadhaar and PAN card from the loanees and handing over the same to other masterminds to manufacture forged documents like employment certificate and salary slips,” the EOW said.

The fraudsters were transferring certain amount for three to four months to the account of loanee, and the loanees on their part were again transferring the amounts to the account of Saroj Nayak, maintained with PNB.

Again, the prospective loanees were being asked to give one/two signed blank cheques in advance to the fraudsters and the same were being used to transfer substantial amounts of the sanctioned loan to Omm Maa Construction’s account at SBI, Saheed Nagar branch.

“After the cheque amount was credited to the firm’s bank account, Nayak withdrew cash and paid back to the masterminds and retained his share,” the agency stated.

During investigation it was found that Rs 226.62 lakh sent by 24 loanees have been credited in the PNB account of Nayak and Rs 52.47 lakh has been transferred to Omm Maa Construction account from the bank accounts of 20 loanees through pre-signed blank cheques.

“The arrestee was getting a good commission for arranging prospective loanees, collecting their credentials and allowing his personal and agency account to facilitate the fraud,” an EOW official said.

So far, 6 persons including the masterming Anirbana Patnaik have been arrested by the EOW in this case. Patnaik had taken a building on rent at DLF, Patia in Bhubaneswar to run the office of his company Purvi Venture Pvt. Ltd. The investigation of the case is on.