Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested a man for allegedly defrauding a private sector bank by securing a loan of Rs 1.42 crore through forged land documents, officials said on Thursday.
The accused, identified as Mihir Kumar Paikaray, was produced before a court in Cuttack following his arrest.
According to the EOW, Paikaray obtained a loan of Rs 1.42 crore from the main branch of ICICI Bank in Bhubaneswar by mortgaging fabricated property documents. The loan was sanctioned and disbursed based on the documents submitted by him. However, he later defaulted on repayment of the equated monthly instalments (EMIs), leading the account to be classified as a Non-Performing Asset (NPA). The outstanding loan liability currently stands at around Rs 1.22 crore.
The investigation revealed that before approaching ICICI Bank, the accused had already availed a Rs 30 lakh loan from Bank of Baroda by mortgaging the same property with the original sale deed. Following his failure to repay that loan, the bank auctioned the mortgaged property under the provisions of the SARFAESI Act.
During the probe, EOW officials found that the sale deed submitted to ICICI Bank was forged. Verification of the records showed that the stamp paper numbers and the signatures and thumb impressions on the mortgaged sale deed did not match the certified copy of the document.
Investigators also found that Paikaray had allegedly attempted to obtain another loan of Rs 1.50 crore from Suryodaya Small Finance Bank using similar means. However, bank officials detected discrepancies during scrutiny and rejected the loan application.
The EOW registered the case on the basis of a complaint filed by a senior official of ICICI Bank. Further investigation is underway to ascertain whether the accused was involved in similar fraudulent transactions elsewhere, police said.
