Fraud in farm loans detected at SBoP

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 11

A major fraud, expected to the tune of Rs 5 crore, has been unearthed at the State Bank of Patiala (SBoP) Sultanpur Lodhi branch involving the use of forged documents, government stamps, wrong photographs and fake revenue records for taking agricultural loans.

The chief branch manager of the bank has been placed under suspension.

The fraud came to light as it was found that the total farm advances being doled out at the branch last year were of more amount than expected. As the fards and land documents attached for taking loans were compared with the records put up on the Punjab Land Revenue Society (PLRS) website, it was found that most of these documents did not match at all.

The internal audit team of the bank took the fards and mutation documents with the respective patwaris of the surrounding villages, who did not own up the signatures put up on their part. Finally, a full-fledged audit of the accounts for farm loans began at the branch a few days ago.

Rajesh K Kulkarni, DGM, State Bank of Patiala, Zonal Office, Jalandhar, said, “In the preliminary investigation that we have undertaken so far, we do not rule out the involvement of revenue officials and deed writers. The computerised documents that have been provided to the bank have been printed on the government paper which cannot be available otherwise. The format of the mutation documents is exactly the same as that of the original. It is extremely difficult to find any anomaly in them.”

Kulkarni said the branch staff said they could not compare the submitted documents with the online revenue records during the disbursement of loan as the patwaris and PLRS staff was on strike then.

The bank officials said they had started figuring out wrongdoers in the case. “A day ago, we managed to track one loanee Harpal Singh, who too had submitted all wrong documents and wrong picture too. He confessed to having committed the offence and has even returned Rs 5 lakh advance which he had taken from us. We are following the same line of action to track other loanees too and recover the amount. We will get all fraudsters arrested too once we are done with our investigation,” said Kulkarni, adding that the total usurped amount would be known after a few more days of work. He said other banks of the area, too, must check their account details for a similar fraud at their place.

Harpreet Singh, SHO, Sultanpur Lodhi, said, “We have been apprised of the fraud but are yet to get an inquiry conducted. Congress MLA Navtej Singh Cheema has sought a proper inquiry into the matter so as to check the involvement of the government staff in the matter.