Berhampur: Baidyanathpur police arrested the former branch head of a private non-banking finance firm Manappuram Finance Ltd’s Kamapalli branch here on charge of financing loan to the tune of Rs 19 lakh by accepting fake gold ornaments as mortgage, Wednesday.
The accused was identified as Smitarupa Padhi, 32, former branch manager of the private gold loan agency in the Silk City, Baidyanathpur police station IIC Ram Kumar Murmu said. A case was registered in this connection and the accused produced in court, he said.
Earlier, police had arrested four persons including a woman and her son. The accused N Rajesh Achari, 34, of MG Road in Aska, P Lata, 44, of Somanath Nagar and her son P Siva Kumar, 24, and J Manoj Kumar Achari, 37, of Sriram Nagar were produced in court after their arrest and remanded to judicial custody, ASP Prabhat Routray had informed.
According to the case diary, the four accused took a loan of Rs 19,005,314 from the Kamapali branch of Manappuram Gold Loan agency by mortgaging fake gold ornaments. Sudhanshu Mishra, the area manager of the agency lodged a complaint at the Baidyanathpur police station after he was apprised about the fraud.
Police started an investigation over the complaint and came to know that Padhi had sanctioned the loan by accepting fake gold ornaments as mortgage. Police came to know that around 26 loans were sanctioned during the period. The gold ornaments were found to be fake and gold-coated when an audit was done on the transactions of the firm.
Police intensified its investigation and arrested those who had received the loans by mortgaging fake gold ornaments. Police said that the loans were sanctioned in between January 2021 to May 2021. Further probe is on to ascertain the involvement of other officials of the agency in the fraud. All those involved in the fraud will be arrested soon, the IIC added.
PNN