Six persons arrested in Rs 16.71 crore SBI loan fraud case

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha state police has arrested six persons in connection with a large-scale loan scam for allegedly defrauding the State Bank of India (SBI) of Rs 16.71 crore.

The defendant, identified as Anirban Patnaik and Anupama Dash from Bhubaneswar, Tophan Rout and Satyaban Rout from Khandapada, Tukuna Mallick from Badamba and Feroz Khan from Kakatpurwere brought before a court on Wednesday.

According to an official statement from the EOW, the arrests were made on a complaint filed by Shiba Sundara Sahoo, Regional Head of SBI in Bhubaneswar. The complainant alleged that the accused fraudulently obtained 161 Xpress Credit Loans from various SBI branches in Bhubaneswar between November 2022 and October 2023 using fake employment documents.

The loans totalling Rs 16.71 crore were taken from branches in Jaydev Vihar (139), Patia (5), Raghunathpur (11) and Jharpada (6).

Procedure

Investigations revealed that Anirban Patnaik had rented a building at DLF, Patia, Bhubaneswar, ostensibly to run his company Purvi Venture Pvt. Ltd. However, in collusion with the other accused, the building was falsely passed off as the regional office of PhonePe by pasting signage and stickers of the company.

The accused also created a fake email account similar to that of PhonePe. Using these fraudulent means, they approached various SBI branches to apply for Xpress Credit Loans, submitted inflated salary slips and fake employment references and falsely pretended to be employees of PhonePe.

During the bank’s pre-approval verification process, the rented building was claimed as PhonePe’s regional branch and the fake email was used to verify the employment status of the loan applicants. This deception resulted in 161 loans being approved in the names of different people using fake documents.

Fraudulent winnings

The investigation further revealed that the accused took 35% of the sanctioned loan amounts from the borrowers to facilitate the loans. The borrowers were asked to submit personal identification documents, including Aadhaar and PAN cards, while other necessary documents were procured by the brokers involved in the scheme. To further the fraud, amounts were transferred to the borrowers’ accounts for several months to give the appearance of regular salary deposits.

When the loans became non-performing assets due to outstanding repayments, the bank launched an internal investigation that uncovered the fraudulent scheme.

Incriminating evidence

Among those arrested were Tophan Rout, Feroz Khan and Anupama Dash, who, with the help of the other accused, obtained loans by submitting fake documents, including fake employment certificates and inflated salary slips.

During the investigation, several incriminating materials were seized and confiscated, including mobile phones containing evidence of the fraudulent activities.