BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch arrested business correspondent of Bank of India for fraud. The correspondent has identified as Pravat Kumar Das of Madhipur village under Remuna police limits and was operating from Remuna branch in Balasore district.
Das was appointed business correspondent of Remuna branch and entrusted with the responsibility of preparing pension rolls. Investigating officers said a probe revealed that pension amount of a pensioner Parsuram Giri was being credited to the Bank of India account. Though Giri passed away on December 27, 2014, Das continued to transfer excessive amounts of pension to Giri’s account till November, amounting to Rs 65 lakh.
Sabitri Behera, also a pensioner, was getting the family pension after the death of her husband. Behera died on March 22, 2014, but Das continued to transfer money in her account till November this year amounting to Rs 67 lakh.
The accused had managed to fraudulently obtain the ATM cards of Giri and Behera and withdraw the cash from ATM kiosks. Subsequently, Bank of India, Remuna branch’s senior manager Swaraj Mohanty lodged a complaint with EOW and the agency registered a case on December 12, 2018. “Das has misappropriated an amount of Rs 1.32 crore. He was arrested and further investigation into the matter is underway,” an EOW officer said.