The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) filed a FIR against BJD MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik over an allegation of more than 50 crore loan fraud, according to a top officer in the Odisha Police Crime Branch. “Case no 24/2023 U/S 506/467/468/471/420/120-B IPC. The case has been registered on the allegation that large numbers of employees of Sambad were forced to take personal loans under threat,” said Dilip Tripathi, SP (EOW) Odisha Police.
He said that the loan amounting to crores was not handed to the employees in question but was instead utilised by their employer business.
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The case was filed on September 16 against Baijyanti Kar, Soumyaranjan Pattnayak, and others, according to the official.
"So far many vital witnesses/victims have been examined. They corroborated the allegation of the complainant and further disclosed the method and magnitude of this scam. Also in past few days, EOW has been able to collect some credible documents including loan/bank-related relevant documents and documents seized in the Sambad office," the official statement reads.
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"Investigation/evidences collected, so far, reveal a huge, well & meticulously planned scam to get the loan amounts sanctioned in Crores of rupees using fraudulent method of cheating, forgery and coercion," the statement reads further.
According to the statement, over the previous few years, more over 350 Sambad/ EML personnel have taken out loans from Odisha Gramya Bank's IRC village branch alone. Loans obtained from other banks such as SBI and others are still being investigated. The true amount is projected to be far higher.
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Further investigation is underway, as per the release.