CA hailing from Delhi booked in PNB loan fraud case

National

A chartered accountant from Delhi was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing in Bhubaneswar for his suspected participation in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case.

The culprit, named as Neeraj Kumar, a resident of Bindapur in Uttam Nagar, appeared before the national capital’s Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. Kumar was transported to Bhubaneswar on transit remand on Monday and would appear before the Court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday. In a statement, EOW stated.

The complaint was filed against the accused Kali Prasad Mishra, Proprietor of KP Solutions, and others based on a written report by a senior PNB employee in Bhubaneswar.

The accused was accused of obtaining a Rs 250 lakh Cash Credit (CC) loan as working capital from Punjab National Bank, Bapuji Nagar Branch, Bhubaneswar in 2017 by using fake/forged documents and mortgaging landed properties as collateral security that were recorded in the names of someone else without the knowledge of the land owners.

“Investigation also revealed that Neeraj Kumar, a qualified Chartered Accountant was working in Punjab National Bank during the year 2013 to 2016 as Manager, Credit, in Saheed Nagar Branch Bhubaneswar along with accused Birendra Kumar Pattanaik who was also working as Chief Manager in the same branch,” a statement said.

It was also revealed that Neeraj Kumar resigned from PNB in 2016 and that following his resignation, he used to sit in PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch posing as a Bank official in which accused Birendra Kumar Pattanaik was the Chief Manager and was actively engaged in facilitating and arranging loans worth crores from PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch.

“Out of his earlier relationship with Birendra Kumar Pattnaik, accused Neeraj Kumar had free access to PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch and was sitting inside the staff seating area of PNB, Bapuji Nagar Branch, posing himself as serving Bank staff/CA. He along with accused Prakash Kumar Behera (Still in Judicial Custody) and other Bank officials has arranged/facilitated the sanction of loans on the basis of forged documents and impersonation, and thereby caused wrongful loss to the bank to the tunes of crores and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves,” the statement added.

During the investigation, it was discovered that one Srikant Prusty, Senior Manager, who verified the authenticity of the identities and addresses of the three guarantors/loanees had not visited the guarantors’ residences or interacted with them prior to the loan’s sanction during pre-sanction visits.

“It revealed during investigation that Neeraj Kumar and Prakash Behera had identified the impersonators to the bank officer Srikant Prusty as genuine loanees and visited their fake addresses at Cuttack,” it added.

It has also come to light that on the day of sanction of loan and subsequent to it, lakhs of rupees have been diverted/transferred of M/s K. P Solutions, Prop- Kali Prasad Mishra to the bank accounts of M/s Neeraj Kumar & Associates, Prop- Neeraj and to some others.

Earlier, accused persons namely Kali Prasad Mishra, Prop of M/s K P Solutions, Srikant Prasad Prusty, the then Senior Manager, Credit, PNB Bapuji Nagar, Birendra Kumar Pattnaik, the then Chief Manager, Narendra Nayak, the then Manager, both of Bapuji Nagar Branch, PNB, Bhubaneswar and Prakash Kumar Behera MD/Directors of M/s Ubique Multitech Private Limited, M/s Aziel Trading, And Marketing have been arrested in this case.

The accused also utilised a similar tactic in granting a loan of Rs 3.5 crores in favour of one M/s Lingaraj Enterprises against the mortgage of the complainant’s residential duplexes – Prasant Kumar Mohaptra – without his knowledge. The aforementioned property documents were really deposited in the bank by the complainant in order for him to obtain a loan of Rs 10 lakh.