Odisha police arrest CA from Delhi in PNB loan fraud case

Bhubaneswar, July 25 The economic offence wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested Neeraj Kumar, a chartered accountant from New Delhi for his alleged involvement in a PNB bank loan fraud case, police said on Monday.

According to EOW officials, Paresh Kumar Das, circle head, Punjab National Bank, Bhubaneswar had filed a written complaint against accused Kali Prasad Mishra, proprietor of M/s K.P. Solutions, and others on the allegation that the accused person availed cash credit (CC) loan for working capital to the tune of Rs. 2.50 crore on October 24, 2017 from Bapuji Nagar Branch in the city by using forged documents.

The accused has also mortgaged landed properties as collateral security, but those stand recorded in the names of someone else without the knowledge of the land owners.

During the investigation, the police found that Neeraj Kumar was working in PNB during the year 2013 to 2016 as manager, credit, in Saheed Nagar branch Bhubaneswar along with another accused Birendra Kumar Pattanaik, who was working as a chief manager in the same branch.

Even though Neeraj resigned from PNB during 2016, he used to sit in the Bapuji Nagar branch posing as a bank official and was actively engaged in facilitating and arranging loans to the tune of crores.

He along with another accused Prakash Kumar Behera (still in judicial custody) and other bank officials 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 officials said.

The EOW also found that on the day of sanction of the loan and subsequent to it, lakhs of rupees were transferred from Kali Prasad Mishra's company account to the bank accounts of Neeraj Kumar & associates.

Earlier, accused persons Kali Prasad Mishra, Srikant Prasad Prusty, the then senior manager (credit), Birendra Kumar Pattnaik, ex-chief manager, Narendra Nayak, the then manager, and a businessman Prakash Kumar Behera were arrested in this case.