Bhubaneswar, Feb. 18: The economic offence wing of the crime branch today arrested six persons, including an Allahabad Bank employee, for taking loan from the bank using forged documents.

Sleuths said they were looking for 75 more persons involved in the scam.

Additional director general of police B.K. Sharma said the chief engineer, drainage division, Cuttack, had in a letter requested authorities of the Allahabad Bank, Nayasadak branch, to provide loans to 85 employees.

Acting on the request, the bank had provided loans of more than Rs 2.26 crore to employees of the drainage division, Cuttack, between December 31, 2009 and March 31, 2010. But when these people did not repay the loan, the bank started an inquiry and found that 78 of the applicants were not employees of the drainage division.

Only seven of them actually worked there. The bank official then filed a complaint with the crime branch last year.

“On October 10 last year, a senior manager of Allahabad Bank, Pranab Kumar Ray, lodged a complaint with us following which we registered a case. During investigation, we got to know that a bank employee was also involved in the loan fraud case,” said the additional director general, who also heads crime branch.

“We arrested a senior manager of the bank, an employee of the drainage division who had masterminded the crime, two middlemen and two other persons who had posed as staff of the drainage division,” he said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Rabindra Kumar Jena, 58, former establishment officer in the office of the chief engineer, drainage division, Cuttack, Akhila Ranjan Dash, 58, senior bank manager, two brokers — Biswanath Samantray, 37, and K. Srikant Patra, 38 — and Nirod Kumar Mangaraj, 34, and Jitendriya Patra, 29, both of whom took loans. Except Dash, all of them had taken loans of Rs 3 lakh each from the bank and were not repaying it.

Sources in the police said Jena had masterminded the scam and prepared the fake documents. Only one of the 85 beneficiaries had repaid the loan.

To get the loans, kingpin Jena had sent a forged letter to the bank in the name of the chief engineer, drainage division, Cuttack. Acting on the letter, the bank granted loans to 85 persons.

To avail the loan, Jena also prepared fake documents in the name of all the applicants. Two middlemen had arranged the persons to whom the loans were disbursed.

“After Jena was arrested, the matter became clear and we arrested those involved in the fraud. Our team is trying to nab all others accused in the case,” said Sharma.