BHUBANESWAR: Economic Offences Wing of Crime Branch arrested field executive of Sundaram Finance Limited, Balasore branch, Sashikant Sahoo and his brother Srikant Sahoo for swindling Rs 1.43 crore.
The arrests came after Territory Manager of the financing firm V Kishore Kumar lodged a complaint with EOW following which the agency registered a case on November 18. Kumar alleged that Sashikant fraudulently sanctioned Rs 1.43 crore between 2018 and 2019 and disbursed 11 loans to nine persons for purchase of Kartar harvesters.
The documents of nine persons, who had applied for loans earlier, were forged by Sashikant. The amount sanctioned to four loanees, amounting to Rs 45 lakh, was transferred to the account of Hanumanjew Furniture and the amount of seven loanees was transferred to the account of Utkal Enterprises by fraudulently presenting them as dealers of Punjab-based Kartar Agro Industries Private Limited.
“Sashikant was hand-in-glove with the proprietors of Hanumanjew and Utkal Enterprises and prepared forged documents like quotations, money receipts, tax invoice and made fictitious transactions showing purchase of harvesters from these two firms,” an EOW officer said.
However, the harvesters were never purchased for which the loans were sanctioned, he added. During investigation, EOW also found out that Srikant is the proprietor of Hanumanjew and his firm received Rs 45 lakh to sell four harvesters.
“Sashikant and Srikant were arrested from Bhadrak on Saturday. Their business premise-cum-house was also searched and many incriminating documents seized. They were produced before a court in Balasore on Sunday,” an EOW officer said and added investigation is on. The proprietor of Utkal Enterprises is also allegedly involved.