Bhubaneswar, July 1 (IANS) The Odisha Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday arrested a former bank official in connection with an alleged loan fraud worth more than Rs 3 crore, officials said.

The accused banker, identified as Shiba Prasad Das, was arrested by the police officers from Trisulia area of Kataka district in Cuttack in connection with a case registered on June 19, based on a complaint filed by Varsha, the Deputy General Manager and Zonal Head of UCO Bank Kataka branch.

In the complaint, the manager alleged that the accused had sanctioned and disbursed 22 car loans and two business loans involving a total of Rs 3,25,43,000 by deliberately manipulating official records and fabricating documents, and thereby causing wrongful loss to the bank.

Das allegedly committed the fraud while serving as the Branch Head of UCO Bank’s Old Secretariat Branch in Cuttack from 2021 to 2024, and later at the bank’s Salepur Branch from 2024 to 2025.

During the course of investigation, the EOW sleuths reportedly found that with an intention to defraud the bank, Das fabricated quotations purportedly issued for the purchase of vehicles and used them for the sanction and disbursement of car loans.

The EOW officials also said that several car loans were sanctioned and disbursed in respect of vehicles that had already been purchased by falsely projecting them as newly purchased vehicles.

“Further investigation established that the accused tampered with copies of CIBIL records and prepared forged Registration Certificates (RCs), KYC documents, insurance papers, and other vehicle-related records to facilitate the processing and disbursement of the loans. By adopting the aforesaid modus operandi, he fraudulently sanctioned and disbursed 22 UCO car loans and two business loans,” the EOW said.

The policemen also ascertained that a total loan amount of Rs 3,25,43,000 was directly credited to the personal bank accounts of the Das.

It was also found that the accused Das had opened savings bank accounts in the names of certain borrowers without obtaining the requisite KYC documents and other mandatory records, with the sole purpose of facilitating the repayment of the fraudulently sanctioned loans.

The investigation also revealed that the loan repayments credited to these accounts were allegedly funded by Das himself, thereby concealing the actual source of the repayments and creating the false impression that the borrowers were regularly servicing their loan accounts.

“Out of 24 number of fraudulent loans, the accused Das had fraudulently sanctioned 16 loans amounting to Rs 1,85,95,000 and eight loans amounting to Rs 1,39,48,000 during his incumbency as Branch Head of UCO Bank’s Salepur Branch and Old Secretariat Branch respectively. During investigation, many incriminating documents, including 24 loan documents, fake KYC, fake salary slips, fake quotations of vehicles etc., have been seized,” the EOW added.

–IANS

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