Bhubaneswar, Apr 27 (IANS): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police on Thursday arrested three accused including two former bank employees in connection with a Rs 4.13 crore bank fraud case.

The police arrested Abdul Hayee, retired branch manager of Nuapatna branch, Prakash Kumar Mohapatra, former senior assistant of Christ College extension counter of Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd, Cuttack and Mustakim Raza, loanee and former LIC agent, the police said.

The arrest was made with regard to the case registered on the allegation of Priyabrata Panda, chief executive officer, Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd, Cuttack.

As per the complaint, during the period from 2019-21, Abdul Hayee and Prakash Kumar by working hands in glove with three loanees had sanctioned eight loans against fake LIC policies amounting to Rs 3.82 crore, which is now increased to Rs 4.13 crore.

During the investigation, the EOW found that the accused bank authorities in violation of the banking guidelines deliberately did not verify the authenticity of the pledged insurance policies, nor did they get it ratified with the concerned branch of LIC. Further, they renewed the loans by sanctioning new loans to close the previous loans.

Mustakim Raza was working as an LIC agent from 2002 to 2022, and he forged the LIC policies by putting the name of the loanees including himself.

In a conspiracy with the accused bank officials, Raza managed to avail the loan against the forged insurance policies. The arrested bank officials were very much aware of such forgery, the officials informed.