Odisha EOW Cracks Rs 3.70 Crore Loan Fraud, Arrests Bank Asst Manager From Chhattisgarh

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch arrested a loan fraud amounting to Rs 3.70 crore and arrested an assistant manager of IDBI Bank from Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

The accused has been identified as Tanmay Kumar Maharana, assistant manager of IDBI Bank of Dandamukundapur Branch at Pipili in Puri district. The EOW arrested the accused from Raipur and brought him to Odisha on transit remand, EOW said in a release on Thursday.

He will be produced before the designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack.

The accused, who was earlier asset officer in the bank, was arrested based on the complaint of Sandeep Pattnaik, General Manager, IDBI Bank, Bhubaneswar.

Pattnaik alleged that Sarojkanta Mohapatra, Ex-Branch Head (now Manager) and Tanmay Kumar Maharana had illegally sanctioned 35 fictitious loans (majorly MUDRA loans) amounting to Rs 3.70 crore mostly in favour of their close relatives.

Investigation revealed that Mohapatra and Maharana had fraudulently created 35 fictitious MUDRA loans amounting to Rs.10 lakhs each in the name of their close relatives without the knowledge of the loanees.

The disbursement of the loans was made to 35 loanees out of the funds of bank covered under General Ledger Account. The loan amounts were found to have transferred/diverted invariably to one particular account.

Further, to avoid audit, the above-noted two bank officers closed the MUDRA loans created fraudulently by transferring the cash from the accounts of BDO, Pipili. They could manage it by giving the false impression to the BDO that the amount has been deposited in the Flexi Account.