Fraud Surfaces In Co-operative Bank In Odisha

Bolangir: After the news of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) fraud, an alleged scam running into lakhs of rupees in Bolangir Central Co-operative Bank has surfaced leaving the account holders in lurch.

As per reports, at least 12 account holders of Bolangir Central Co-operative Bank were duped to the tune of Rs 10 lakh through their Debit cards.

Bedashree Purohit, a depositor of the bank said, “I had deposited Rs 80,000 in that bank. A few days back when I went to withdraw the interest amount, I was told by the bank that somebody had already withdrawn that money from my account.”

Another customer, Goura Chandra Puruseth said, “I have saved Rs 1,72,000 in the hope that my money will remain safe there, but when I updated my passbook on the 4th this month, I was shocked to find only Rs 36 in my account.”

Sources said that the bank didn’t have a provision of debit card before. It started its debit card operations just a year ago. So there were a lot of customers who were issued cards against their account but hadn’t received that in person till now. According to the bank, many new unused debit cards with their PINs were still lying with the bank.

Replying on the questions about this scam, Bankanidhi Rayaguru, Chief Executive Officer (In Charge) of Bolangir Central Co-operative Bank said, “According to our initial investigation, we have found that the money was withdrawn by a contractual outsourced employee of the bank through the debit cards those were lying with the bank.”

The bank is suspecting an insider job behind this scam as the debit cards were accessible only to bank employees.