Bhopal: Bank officials among five booked in loan fraud case

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): EOW has registered a case against five persons including the then bank officials in a 2016 bank fraud case in Balaghat, said the officials on Thursday.

Director general EOW, Ajay Sharma told Free Press that in the primary investigation the officer found that the accused had committed a loan fraud of Rs 18.64 lakh and cheated Syndicate Bank, Bharvel branch of Balaghat district in 2016. The EOW police station in-charge Dinesh Joshi informed that the EOW has registered a case under section 420,120-B of IPC and under section 7 (C) of Corruption Act against the five, Arif Hussain his wife Samimunisha, Samina Begum, then bank manager Shridhar N Dekote and loan sanctioned officer Lakhiendra Mandi.

The police have received a complaint in which it was alleged that one Arif Hussain and his wife Samimunisha had approached the Syndicate Bank and applied for the loan of Rs 20 lakh to purchase a plot in 2016.

The bank sanctioned the amount and deposited Rs 12.60 lakh in their loan account without taking any collateral against it. The amount was withdrawn by the applicant Arif as he was to purchase the plot from Samina Begum. However, neither Arif had any plan of buying any plot, nor Samina intended†to sell it. The duo had planned the fake land deal to get the loan amount, which they managed in connivance allegedly with the bank officials. The loan account was turned into non performing assets (NPA) as Arif did not deposit any instalment against the amount he had taken.

In the investigations it is found that the bank officials including the then bank manager Shridhar N Dekote and loan sanctioned officer Lakhiendra Mandi did not complete the primary process of the applicants like know your customer (KYC). They did not take any undertaking letter from the applicants. The officials even failed to verify the plot purchase.

When the bank came to know about the fraud, they lodged a complaint.