Bhubaneswar: In what could possibly be the biggest synchronised action against alleged bank loan defaulters, the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Bhubaneswar has registered three cases against three former officials of the Union Bank of India (UBI), Nayapalli Branch in the capital city, and six builders along with 44 borrowers on charges of being involved in Rs 24.17 crore loan fraud perpetrated at the bank branch in 2017.
Reportedly, cases have been registered under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468 & 471 of IPC and section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against the then Chief Manager of UBI Nayapalli Branch, Bhubaneswar Mohapatra, the then Assistant Manager Ashwini Kumar Patra, and the then Manager Rajah Kumar Patanga.
The six builders have been identified as Uma Shankar Patro, Anuradha, Puspanjali Patro, Biswanath Jena, Kamala Rani Jena, Aditya Kumar Jena.
According to a release of the ACB, the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves in 2017 and in pursuance thereof, the accused bank officials abused their respective official positions in the matter of processing, sanction, disbursal of alleged housing loans. The loans resulted in the loss of Rs 24.17 crore to the bank, the officials said, adding that searches were conducted at nine places in Odisha and incriminating documents have been seized.
A locker of accused Bhubaneswar Mohapatra, the then Chief Manager, UBI, and accused builder Anuradha have been identified which shall be inspected shortly.
Under the said conspiracy, the accused borrowers/ builder submitted false/ fictitious documents/ information, including fake/fictitious ITRs defective KYC documents/ information and the same were dishonestly processed/accepted by the accused bank officials without any verification in violation with the bank guidelines/ procedure and they also accepted incomplete credit information/documentation, not obtained approved plan/legal scrutiny/search report etc., and they released entire loan amounts to the accused builders (on behalf of borrowers) without ensuring completion of construction of the houses. The disbursed loan amounts were allegedly diverted by the accused builders for other purposes. The accused persons have caused undue wrongful loss to the tune of Rs.24,17,99,211.7 (as on May 31, 2019) to the Union Bank of India and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves.
An investigation is currently underway.
It is pertinent to mention here that the CBI Tuesday launched a massive crackdown by carrying out searches at over 61 locations in 18 cities after registering 17 cases involving swindling of funds to the tune of Rs 1,139 crore.