BERHAMPUR: A 37-year-old Asha worker and her daughter are on the run after allegedly swindling lakhs of rupees from gullible women by taking loans in their names from various financial companies without their knowledge.
The accused, Kuni Pattnaik and her 19-year-old daughter Pinki of Rishipur village within Purushottampur police limits of the district are absconding since the last two months. The mother-daughter duo used to run a women self-help group (WSHG) comprising 60 women of the village where Kuni was the group leader and Pinki the account keeper.
Subasini Pattnaik, one of the victims of the fraud and member of the WSHG said the mother-daughter duo used to facilitate loans from various finance companies for the members of the self-help group. But the beneficiaries used to pay the loan amounts in time and seldom kept any debt. However last week, some finance company officials visited their homes asking them to repay their loans.
Shocked, when the women SHGs enquired about it, they came to know that Kuni and Pinki, on the pretext of providing them with healthcare services, had obtained their signatures and availed loans worth lakhs of rupees in their names without their knowledge.
Realising that they had been cheated, the women then filed a complaint with police five days back. As no action was taken, they staged a sit-in protest in front of the Puroshottampur police station on Saturday demanding immediate arrest of the mother-daughter duo.
“Since Kuni was an Asha worker of the village, she used to ask for our signatures for various purposes and also collected bank passbooks on the false assurance that we would receive financial aids through government schemes,” the women SHG members alleged. Basing on their complaint, police registered a case.
Investigating officer Kshetramohan Sahu said, “Efforts are underway to nab the accused and if the allegations against them are found to be true, they will be punished as per law.” Meanwhile, due to absence of the Asha worker, newborns, mothers and pregnant women have been deprived of vaccinations and other services for the past two months.