Bhubaneswar, Nov. 18: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today conducted raids at the residence and offices of nine people at 11 places in the state for alleged involvement in a bank loan fraud case.

The raids were conducted following a directive from Orissa High Court.

Bank officials allegedly colluded with certain people to secure loans from the banks on the basis of fake documents. The accused persons later did not repay the loan amounts.

CBI officials said four bank officials and five others were involved in the case in which nearly Rs 1 crore was siphoned off from two banks.

The accused who had taken loans from the bank were identified as Sudhendra Kumar Samal, Arun Swain, Mahesweta Biswal, Manjulata Mishra and the accused bank officers were Khageswar Panda, branch manager of Bank of Baroda, Anup Kumar Palit, assistant general manager of State Bank of India (SBI), K. Apparao, chief manager, SBI and Sunadhar Biswal, credit officer, SBI.

These bank officials held these posts during 2008 to 2011. Rita Biswal, a senior anchor with All India Radio, was also arrested as she was the guarantor in one case.

Superintendent of police (SP) CBI, M.S. Khan said the raids were conducted at nine places in Cuttack and one place each in Bhubaneswar and Angul. Of these 11 places, nine were residential areas and two were office premises.

Khan said four of the accused had taken loans from SBI, Bidyadharpur branch in Cuttack and Bank of Baroda, Buxibazar branch in Cuttack, furnishing fake documents in collusion with bank officials. The accused later did not repay the loan.

Later, several petitions were filed in the high court. While hearing these petitions, the high court ordered the CBI on March 8 to inquire into the matter.

The SP said the documents furnished by the accused were mostly fake and the properties they had mortgaged were non-existent.

Gangrape

Three persons, including a truck driver, were today arrested for allegedly gangraping a minor girl in Pahal on the outskirts of the city last night.

Police said the accused trio forcibly entered the house of the girl who was alone at home and assaulted her. Most people in the locality were unaware of the crime till she went to the police station this morning to lodge a complaint.

The accused have been identified as Sushant Behera, a truck driver from Cuttack Sadar, and Lokanath Sahu and Laxmidhar Bhola from Johal in Balianta.

Both the accused and the victim were sent to the Capital Hospital for medical examination.

“We will forward the accused to court tomorrow,” said a senior police officer.