Balasore, July 1: CBI sleuths have arrested four persons, including an advocate, for availing bank loans to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore by furnishing fake land documents.
The arrests were made after carrying out raids on the local branches of two nationalised banks — Bank of Baroda and Syndicate Bank.
These persons, in connivance with bank officials, had availed of the loans by submitting fake land documents in Sartha area under Basta block during 2007-09.
“We carried out raids for the last two days and so far found the laundered amount to be around Rs 2.5 crore. The amount may go up further,” said CBI inspector Sanjay Samal. He said four persons had been arrested but the prime accused, Gourishankar Jena and his wife Tulasi Jena of Sartha village under Basta police station, were absconding. The arrested persons are Nandadul Jena, Sankarshan Jena, Anadi Jena and the bank advocate, Lambodhar Hota.
A case had been booked against the accused persons for forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy, said Samal.
“The involvement of others and more financial transaction may come up during course of investigation. Further, the role of the managers too would be verified by the department,” he said.
The loans had been sanctioned during the tenure of Rajendra Mohanty of Syndicate Bank and Ramakanta Rout of Bank of Baroda. Both of them were now posted elsewhere, said the CBI official.
These accused, in connivance with the bank officials, had availed of term loans, cash credit and housing loans.Some of the properties mortgaged to the banks were found to have been sold to others. “They had mortgaged two ice factories Krishna-Kaveri and Shiva near Bahabalpur in Kasafal. However, they sold these assets after drawing loans from the banks,” said Samal.
“During our investigation, we found manipulation by the accused persons in connivance with the bank officials and the advocate. Contrary to the bank guidelines, one of the banks paid cash of Rs 40 lakh in a single day,” said an investigating officer.
The rules say that permission from the director of revenue intelligence is required for payment of more than Rs 10 lakh cash on a single day.
