BHUBANESWAR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against four serving and retired officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in the City for allegedly cheating the financial institution to the tune of over Rs 31 crore.
The bank branch at the Station Square had apparently advanced loans to Global Trading Solutions, a mineral exporting firm, in gross violation of norms.
The CBI named the then chief manager of PNB Station Square branch, Nagmani Satyanarayana Prasad, former assistant general manager SC Sharma, ex-chief manager Manoranjan Dash and the then officer and senior manager of the branch, Priyotosh Das. The agency has booked the case under Sections 120B and 420 of IPC along with Sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act.
Managing director of Global Trading, Abinash Mohanty, former directors Kaushik Mohanty and Anshuman Samantaray, current director Bidhubhusan Nayak and others have been named by the CBI.
The central agency received a complaint from PNB Circle Head, Ganpat Lal, seeking an investigation into the matter. In the complaint, the Circle head said Nagmani, Sharma, Manoranjan and Priyotosh, who were then posted at the bank's Station Square branch, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Global Trading
through its managing director Abinash, Kaushik, Anshuman, and Bidhubhusan to commit the fraud.
The bank officials allegedly abused their officials positions by processing, sanctioning and disbursing cash credit facility, discounting bills and issuing letters of credit to Global Trading between 2010 and 2015. Subsequently, Global Trading illegally diverted the funds received from the bank to its sister and group companies and misused the same. The bank officials did not verify the genuineness of Global Trading's business activities and extended undue favour to the private firm, it said.
The four bank officials are accused of extending undue advantages to Global Trading by transgressing their authorized financial powers and limits in violation of the norms and guidelines of PNB. "The criminal acts by the accused persons have caused wrongful loss to Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 31.92 crore as on June 5, 2020," read the complaint.
Meanwhile, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Anti-Corruption Branch Bhubaneswar) Narayan Chandra Sahoo has been asked to investigate the case.