Crime Branch arrests fake guarantor

BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch police on Friday arrested two persons who impersonated themselves as actual guarantor for a businessman to take around 1 crore 75 lakh from a nationalised bank here in the city.

According to the Crime Branch police, Somnath Adhikary, a person from Baripada was staying at Cuttack, had applied a loan from the MSME credit centre of the State Bank of India main branch here. Adhikary had taken the entire amount in different times with the same fake guarantor. He was doing a vegetable business at Patia after taking a cold storage in lease from Markfed, the police added.

Adhikary had produced two fake guarantors before the bank officials and took the entire amount, Crime Branch DSP Sibram Sahu said. Adhikary deposited two terms in time, but after that he became irregular in depositing the amount and finally stopped to deposit the installment money, he added.

When the customer did not deposit the required installment amount money in time, the SBI started sending letter to the guarantors and also to the customer Adhikary. The bank notices came in the name of the persons who didn’t know about all the forgery made by the loan recipient. Among them Golap Sahu, an old woman from Ranihat in Cuttack, filed a writ petition in the Odisha High Court to trace out the truth after getting bank notice.

The High Court directed the Crime Branch to investigate into the matter and a DSP had started the investigation. During the investigation, the Crime Branch police found a person Jata Sahu, brother of petitioner Golap Sahu, was involved in the case as he was the joint-account holder with his sister. Golap’s impersonator and Jata had given signatures for the loan, though Golap was an illiterate.

Similarly, another person Pitabas Behera from Balikuda of Gopalpur area was the impersonator of Gaurang Behera who already died in 2003. The Crime Branch police arrested the duo and forwarded to the court. “Adhikary had produced many forgery documents including electric bill payment receipt and holding tax during the withdrawal of loan money from the bank,” said DSP Sahu.