Nabarangpur: More than 100 women of a village have been duped of more than Rs 50 lakh by an Asha worker and her family in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district.
According to police sources, the Asha worker, Subhasini Mohapatra, and her son Nirakar Mohapatra of Banuaguda village under Sirasi panchayat of Papadahandi block in the district convinced the women of the village that they would help them avail loan from banks and other sources.
Subhasini told the women that if they gave their loan money to her, she would repay the loan with interest and pay them a certain amount in return. Convinced by her request, the women took the loan from four non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) and Axis Bank.
As many as 24 women availed the loan from Annapurna group, 30 from Spandana, 24 from Suryodaya, seven from Tata, and some others from Axis Bank. Each woman took loan of Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 and handed over the entire amount to Subhasini.
Even six months after taking the money from the women, Subhasini and her son neither repaid the loan to the NBFCs nor gave any amount to them. A few days back, 10 women, who had taken the loan from Axis Bank, received notices about non-payment of loan instalments.
Meanwhile, Subhasini, her son and husband Sarat Mohapatra left the village and remained unreachable over phone. Realising that they had been duped by the Asha worker, around 10 women, led by Chandrama Bhatara filed a complaint of cheating against Subhasini and her family at Papadahandi police station.
The inspector-in-charge of Papadahandi police station, Deepak Kumar Jena, admitted that the complaint of cheating had been filed. The investigation was continuing and they were in search of Subhasini and her family.