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In a significant development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) took action last week by attaching properties valued at approximately Rs 19.67 crore in connection with a loan fraud case worth Rs 18.79 crore allegedly perpetrated by a builder and three former bank officials in Bhubaneswar back in 2017.
The ED's investigation was initiated last year following three FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against builder Uma Shankar Patro and three ex-officers of a nationalized bank, identified as Bhubaneswar Mohapatra, Ashwini Patra, and Rajesh Patanga, on July 1, 2019. The accusations revolved around the alleged misappropriation of Rs 18.79 crore through multiple housing loans obtained from the bank's Nayapalli branch in 2017, along with involvement from various private individuals.
On May 18 of this year, the ED executed search operations at eight residential and commercial properties owned by Patro and other implicated individuals. During these searches, authorities seized around Rs 15 lakh in cash, gold jewelry valued at approximately Rs 1.3 crore, along with incriminating documents and electronic devices.
Sources associated with the ED claim that the attached properties encompass movable assets in the form of bank balances and mutual fund balances worth Rs 9,49,657, as well as 57 immovable assets, including land and buildings, valued at Rs 19,57,73,370, spread across Puri and Bhubaneswar.
According to the ED's findings, the accused former bank officials allegedly conspired with Patro, other builders, and borrowers to sanction housing loans using forged documents while violating the bank's established norms. Patro, along with his family members, was accused of misappropriating public funds and diverting the loan amounts to their personal accounts, without undertaking any housing projects, as claimed by ED sources.
In a related development this July, the CBI conducted raids on properties linked to a jewelry store owned by Patro's family members in the Cuttack Road area. This action was taken in connection with another bank loan scam involving nearly Rs 7 crore. A nationalized bank had filed a complaint with the CBI, alleging that Patro and his family members had obtained a Rs 6 crore loan from the bank's Old Station Bazar branch in 2013 through the submission of forged documents, with the loan account eventually turning into a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) in February 2020.
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