Odisha: 2 bank officials held for fraudulently swindling Rs 3.70 crore Mudra loan money

By Sukant Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, March 10: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar on Sunday arrested two persons, including a former IDBI branch manager in connection with a fraud amounting to Rs 3.70 crore.

According to EOW, the IDBI ex-branch manager Saroj Kanta Mohapatra along with his associate Angel Mishra looted the money fraudulently.

The case was registered on the allegation of Sandeep Pattnaik, general manager of IDBI Bank in Bhubaneswar.

In his complaint, the senior official alleged that Sarojkanta Mohapatra, and Tanmay Kumar Maharana, ex-asset officer, IDBI Bank, Dandamukundapur Branch in Puri district, had illegally sanctioned/disbursed 35 fictitious loans (majorly MUDRA loans) amounting to Rs 3.70 Crore, mostly in favour of their close relative/acquaintances.

During the investigation, it was found that the government cash of Rs 3.7 crore was deposited in two bank accounts of BDO, Pipili maintained with IDBI’s Dandamukundapur Branch in Pipili.

In 2018, Pipili block development officer (BDO) had requested the bank for a Flexi Fixed Deposit (FFD) of the above amount, and as per the advice of the then-accused Branch Manager, the then BDO, Pipili had issued seven “Yourself” cheques for the purpose.

The matter came to light after the BDO sought for the details of the Flexi Account and the statements of the account. The bank intimated that no such FFD had ever been booked/created from the accounts of BDO, Pipili.

“An internal investigation was conducted by the bank, in which it surfaced that Rs 3.7 crore of Pipili Block Office deposited with the bank has been misappropriated by the then bank officials who have diverted the amount for their wrongful gain,” EOW said in a release.

Further, the accused had fraudulently created 35 fictitious MUDRA loans amounting to Rs.10 lakhs each in the name of their close relatives /acquaintances, without the knowledge of the loanees.

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

The entire loan amount was diverted directly/indirectly to the Bank account of Angel Mishra maintained with SBI.

To escape the audit, they closed the MUDRA loans by transferring the amount from two accounts of BDO Pipili maintained with the Branch.

For this purpose, the accused Bank Officials tampered with the mandate of BDO, Pipili, and used the forged documents as genuine.