Bhubaneswar branch of the Economic Offences Wing has arrested a Delhi-based chartered accountant for his alleged involvement in a case related to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case.
The accused identified as Neeraj Kumar, a resident of Bindapur in Uttam Nagar was produced before the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in the national capital
Kumar was on Monday brought on a transit remand to Bhubaneswar and will be produced before the Court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Bhubaneswar, EOW said in a statement.
The case has been registered based on a written report by a senior PNB official, Bhubaneswar against the accused Kali Prasad Mishra, Proprietor of KP Solutions, and others.
The allegation was that the accused person availed Cash Credit (CC) loan as working capital to the tune of Rs 250 lakh in 2017 from Punjab National Bank, Bapuji Nagar Branch, Bhubaneswar by using fake/forged documents and mortgaging landed properties as collateral security those stand recorded in the names of someone else without the knowledge of the land owners.
"Investigation also revealed that Neeraj Kumar, a qualified Chartered Accountant was working in Punjab National Bank during the year 2013 to 2016 as Manager, Credit, in Saheed Nagar Branch Bhubaneswar along with accused Birendra Kumar Pattanaik who was also working as Chief Manager in the same branch," a statement said.
It also revealed that Neeraj Kumar resigned from PNB during the year 2016 and after his resignation he used to sit in PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch posing as a Bank official in which accused Birendra Kumar Pattanaik was the Chief Manager and was actively engaged in facilitating and arranging loans to the tune of crores from PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch.
"Out of his earlier relationship with Birendra Kumar Pattnaik, accused Neeraj Kumar had free access to PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch and was sitting inside the staff seating area of PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch, posing himself as serving Bank staff/CA. He along with accused Prakash Kumar Behera (Still in Judicial Custody) and other Bank officials has arranged/facilitated the sanction of loans on the basis of forged documents and impersonation, and thereby caused wrongful loss to the bank to the tunes of crores and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves," the statement added.
During the investigation, it came to light that one Srikant Prusty, Senior Manager, who verified the genuineness of the identity and addresses of the three guarantors/loanees has neither visited the residence of the guarantors nor interacted with them prior to the sanction of loan during pre-sanction visits.
"It revealed during investigation that Neeraj Kumar and Prakash Behera had identified the impersonators to the bank officer Srikant Prusty as genuine loanees and visited their fake addresses at Cuttack," it added.
It has also come to light that on the day of sanction of loan and subsequent to it, lakhs of rupees have been diverted/transferred of M/s K. P Solutions, Prop- Kali Prasad Mishra to the bank accounts of M/s Neeraj Kumar & Associates, Prop- Neeraj and to some others.
Earlier, accused persons namely Kali Prasad Mishra, Prop of M/s K P Solutions, Srikant Prasad Prusty, the then Senior Manager, Credit, PNB Bapuji Nagar, Birendra Kumar Pattnaik, the then Chief Manager, Narendra Nayak, the then Manager, both of Bapuji Nagar Branch, PNB, Bhubaneswar and Prakash Kumar Behera MD/Directors of M/s Ubique Multitech Private Limited, M/s Aziel Trading, And Marketing have been arrested in this case.
The accused persons have also adopted a similar modus operandi in sanctioning a loan of Rs 3.5 crores in favor of one M/s Lingaraj Enterprises against the mortgage of residential duplexes of the complainant - Prasant Kumar Mohaptra without his knowledge. The said property documents were actually deposited by the complainant in the bank for availing a loan of Rs 10 lakh for him.
( With inputs from ANI )
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