Odisha Finance Co Manager Mortgages Fake Gold, Held For Rs 8L Loan Fraud

The Commissionerate Police claimed to have solved a major fraud pertaining to loan embezzlement at a finance company, ICL Fincorp Limited, in Bhubaneswar with the arrest of a branch manager. The accused branch manager, Sachidananda Samantaray was arrested from Ganjam district on Wednesday.

Earlier, it was alleged that some unidentified persons had availed gold loan amounting to several lakhs from the finance company in Mancheswar area by mortgaging fake gold ornaments.

Divulging details, ACP Sanjeev Satpathy said on Thursday that the accused had joined as a branch manager in the company in July 2021. During his term, several customers had availed loans by mortgaging gold.

“The accused used to take signatures on deposit forms while clearing loans for customers. It has been found that the branch manager had clandestinely transferred Rs 8.30 lakh to his own account (gold loan) by pledging fake gold weighing 290 grams. The fake metal was deposited against the name of some customers,” said Satpathy.

It is alleged that the branch manager went absconding after the irregularities were detected during an internal audit. Moreover, the accused had lost the entire money on gambling, sources in the investigating team said.

“It was found that the branch manager had submitted forged documents to commit the crime. Some duplicate gold has also been seized. The account to which the money was transferred is also being examined, “said Satpathy.

It is suspected that some other persons could also be involved in the fraud as the quality of gold is checked before issuing loans through designated examiners. “We will conduct a detailed probe to check if the protocols were followed while issuing loans against the gold mortgaged by customers,” Satpathy added.