JAGATSINGHPUR: Erasama police on Monday arrested a man from Kujang for allegedly impersonating as a woman and using her bank account to avail a loan and siphoning off a large chunk of the money from the sanctioned amount.
Posing as Sarala Pradhan, the accused Linkan Biswal had availed a loan of Rs 22.50 lakh through her SBI account. After the loan was sanctioned, he reportedly transferred Rs 13.75 lakh to his three bank accounts and gave some money to a contractor, police said. Biswal belonged to Pankpal village in Kujang.
The incident came to light after Sarala, who belongs to Badabellari in Erasama, lodged a complaint with police on April 15. Sarala, wife of a retired government employee, had deposited Rs 30 lakh as fixed deposit (FD) in her account at SBI branch of Erasama. However, she stopped receiving messages of bank transactions after February 12. Suspecting foul play, she went to the SBI branch office on April 15 and to her dismay, she learnt that the phone number linked to her bank account has been changed.
The bank staff also told her that her account has been used to avail a loan of Rs 22.50 lakh of which Rs 13.75 lakh has been transferred to three other banks. Branch manager Bindusagar Nayak verified the same following which Sarala filed a complaint with Erasama police the same day.During investigation, police found that Linkan changed the complainant’s mobile number at SBI, Rahama branch on February 12 and availed the loan after linking her account with his number. After transferring the money to three of his accounts, Linkan gave some of the money to contractor Kalia Sahoo who used the money for construction work under MGNREGS, police said.
While Kalia has been detained for interrogation, Linkan was arrested and produced in court on Monday. Erasama IIC Prasant Majhi said Rs 2 lakh was seized from the accused’s possession. “We are probing the role of bank staff at SBI Rahama branch where the complainant’s number was changed,” he said.