| Posted on: 2011-12-14/00:14:54 | India - Fraud & Cyber Crime News | Bank Complaints/ |
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A former chief manager of UCO Bank landed in the CBI net for his alleged involvement in a Rs 1.65-crore bank loan fraud. An official source told The Telegraph that P.K. Ghoshal, who was the chief manager of the Itanagar branch of UCO Bank, has been arrested by the CBI for allegedly disbursing the loan in violation of banking rules. He has been booked on charges of cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. The CBI had registered a case in August on the basis of an FIR lodged by the bank authorities after the fraud was detected. He was arrested by the CBI sleuths here on Saturday. They took him to Itanagar on transit remand for further investigation,” he said. Ghoshal had allegedly colluded with one Samrat Agarwal and sanctioned a loan to a private firm, M/s S.K. Enterprise, without following the ban norms in October 2007. Agarwal went into hiding to evade arrest after the CBI probe was ordered. There were several lapses on his (Ghoshal’s) part. He extended the loan without proper verification and bypassed banking rules. We are looking into the matter if these deviations are in lieu of monetary benefits extended to the accused,” the source said. During investigation, the CBI found that the name of the proprietor of S.K. Enterprise on paper was that of a school student. Agarwal, who was the mastermind of the fraud, had registered the firm in the name of a school student (whose name has not been disclosed as he is believed to be innocent) through forgery. He then availed of the loan in collusion with Ghoshal,” he said. By taking the power of attorney of S.K. Enterprise, Agarwal pocketed the money and did not bother to repay the loan,” he said. The loan was sanctioned against primary security of stocks, which included construction materials, TMT bars and so on. The advance was also secured by collateral security of one fixed deposit of Rs 34 lakh. When the firm defaulted in repayment, the bank decided to carry out physical inspection of the office and godown. It was then that the fraud came to light. During inspection by bank officials, the godown and the office of the firm were found to be closed and only signboards were mounted on the closed premises. Later, inquiries revealed that the premises had been locked for a long time. The CBI sleuths found that the money in the fixed deposit had also been diverted. |
| Source: T P | Location : Guwahati |
