By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Economic Offences Wing, Odisha, arrested the accused persons namely Anirban Patnaik and Anupama Dash from Bhubaneswar, Tophan Rout and Satyaban Rout from Khandapada, Tukuna Mallick from Badamba and Feroz Khan from Kakatpur on 04.09.2024 in EOW PS Case No.09, Dtd.12.08.2024 U/s 409/420/467/468/471/120-B IPCr.w Sec.66 (C) of IT Act.
The arrested accused persons were produced before the Hon’ble Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttackon 04.09.2024.
The case was registered on the written report of Shiba Sundara Sahoo, Regional Manager, State Bank of India, RBO, Bhubaneswar wherein it was alleged that the accused persons by entering into a conspiracy availed 161 No. of Xpress Credit Loans amounting to Rs. 16.71 Cr. from Jaydev Vihar (139), Patia (5), Raghunathpur (11) and Jharpada Branch (6) of SBI during the period from Nov’ 2022 to Oct’ 2023 by producing fake/fabricated employment records as employees of Phonepe Pvt. Ltd.
As found on investigation, so far- – Anirbana Patnaik had taken a building on rent at DLF, Patia, Bhubaneswar to run office of his company ‘Purvi Venture Pvt. Ltd.’ but by entering into conspiracy with other accd. persons, the building was projected to be the regional office of Phonepe at Bhubaneswar by putting the sign boards and stickers of Phonepe.
– Besides, one fake e-mail looking like that of Phonepe was created by the accd. persons. – The accd. persons approached different branches of SBI at Bhubaneswar for Xpress Credit Loan (Personal Loan) by filing the inflated salary slip and the forged employment certificate of Phonepe
During Pre-sanction visit, the above said building hired by accd. Anirbana Patnaik was fraudulently shown as the Regional Office of Phonepe and the fake e-mail was used to give clearance during verification that the loan applicants are the employees of Phonepe. In this fraudulent manner, the accd. persons managed to get total 161 No. of Xpress Loans meant for the corporate sector sanctioned in the name of different accd. loanees by making/using forged documents.
Investigation revealed that the accd. persons were receiving 35% of the loan amount from the loanees to get it sanctioned in their favour. The loanees were being asked to submit their personal IDs like Aadhaar and PAN, and the other documents were being arranged/managed by the accd. brokers. The fake e-mail was being used to give the false information that the accd. were the employees of Phonepe.
Amounts were being sent in advance for 3-4 consecutive months to the accounts of the loanees on a particular date of a month so as to give the impression that it happens to be the salary account of the loanees where regular salaries are being credited every month. When the loans became stressed due to non-refund of the loan amount, fraudulent activities were suspected which necessitated an internal investigation in which the fraud came to the surface.
From among the arrested accd. persons, accd. Tophan Rout, Feroz Khan and Anupama Dash have taken loans by producing fake documents like fake employment certificate of Phonepe and inflated salary slips with the help of the other accused persons.
Many incriminating materials like mobile phones containing the incriminating messages pertaining to the fraud have been recovered and seized from the arrested accd. persons. The investigation of the case is on
