Bhubaneswar, Nov. 27: Officials of the Economic Offences Wing today arrested a former manager of the Sakhigopal branch of State Bank of India in connection with a loan scam worth a sum of Rs 1.17 crore.
The accused, Surendranath Senapati, 63, was held in connection with the scam, which took place during 2003-2006.
The police said the former branch manager, along with some other accomplices, had drawn the amount by creating 51 fake beneficiaries under the personal loan scheme. “The loans were granted on the basis of forged documents, and the accused have shown the beneficiaries as employees of the East Coast Railway. The loans were granted through false salary slips and forged undertaking forms,” said a senior official.
The scam came to light when the payment of interest instalments became irregular. Interrogation also revealed that as many as 16 beneficiaries were fictitious.
In January, the wing had arrested Saikh Sadaquat Ali, 63, the former field officer of the bank, Saikh Sadaquat Ali, 63, and two Grade IV employees of the railway, Rajat Kumar Mohanty, 45, and Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, 47, in connection with the fraud. The wing registered a case in this connection in November last year after the bank’s regional manager had lodged a complaint.
“Investigations revealed that the beneficiaries were not employees of the East Coast Railway. Senapati was arrested under several sections of the Indian Penal code,” said an official.
Nayak remand
A CBI court today extended the remand of broker Subhankar Nayak, who was arrested in connection with the money laundering scam of the Seashore Group, five days ago. Nayak had allegedly acted as a conduit between the group and a number of top-notch bureaucrats.
In another development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached the bank balance amounting to Rs 295 crores in 2,087 bank accounts maintained by 27 companies of Rose Valley group across the country. ED officials said that this was the biggest attachment of bank balance so far in the money deposit collection case.
