PEDDAPALLI: In a major hunt, the Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths and local police arrested as many as 12 members of a gang indulged in arranging loans for farmers from the Telangana Grameena Bank by submitting fake documents, on Friday.
According to official sources, another five members of the gang are still at large. Speaking to the media, Ramagundam Commissioner of Police (CP) V Satyanarayana said that about Rs 5.55 lakh in cash was also seized from the possession of the arrested persons.
Revealing more details about the crime, the CP said that the incident came to light for the first time in 2019 when the bank issued notices to around 153 farmers, who had obtained loans worth a total of about Rs 1.99 crore during 2016-2018, demanding repayment of dues.
All these farmers belong to Ramagiri and Muttaram mandals. Suspicious of the number of ryots, the bank manager enquired at the local revenue offices. It was then they found that the documents submitted by the farmers were fake. Based on this information, the bank filed a case against all ryots.
During inquiry, the investigation officers found the involvement of the said gang in creating fake documents such as passbooks, pahanis, stamps and 1-B certificates. The arrested persons have been identified as Pandula Prabhakar, Dumala Praveen, Biyyani Ravinder, Peyyala Ramesh, Garikanti Sadiaah, Yendreddy Satyanarayana, Nene Rajender, Dodla Srinivas, Narahari Anil Kumar, Kukkadapu Ashok, Madige Sadanna and Gattu Bhumaiah. A
ccording to sources, Pandula Prabhakar worked as the driver of the bank manager and it was then that he learnt the processes for obtaining crop loans.
He colluded with Dumala Praveen and started working as agents who help ryots get loans. To this regard, they started creating fake documents by forging the signatures of revenue authorities. They soon started making other fake documents which help ryots get loans easily. Soon their network expanded and more pesons joined the gang. Their commissions depended on the loan amounts.
Commissioner says
CP V Satyanarayana has said that the farmers would be named as just witnesses and victims. About 30 ryots have repaid loans worth Rs 37.91 lakh