Nagpur Rural Police bust gang over Rs 73.82 crore SBI farm loan fraud in farmers' names

Nagpur Rural Police have busted an inter-state gang accused of obtaining agricultural loans from the State Bank of India (SBI) by getting fake documents prepared in the names of poor and barely literate farmers of Nagpur district. The total loan amount is stated to be Rs 73,82,92,850, or about Rs 73.82 crore.

Police have so far arrested three accused in the case. Cases under various sections have been registered against 18 accused in all.

According to police, on November 1 a team of the Economic Offences Wing detained Dr Madan Gopal Mallikarjun Patil (26) from Bengaluru. Two days later, on November 3, a team of the Local Crime Branch arrested two accused from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. They are Priyaranjan Ashok Kumar Chaudhary alias Gaurav Mishra alias Gaurav Jaiswal (42) and Rahul alias Sandeep Satish Dubey (37).

The method used to trap the farmers has also come to light. The gang members allegedly targeted poor, uneducated and barely literate farmers and first won their trust. They were told that the government would give them Rs 10,000 every year as compensation for crop losses, and that opening an account in SBI was necessary for this.

On this pretext the farmers were taken to the bank, where their Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and satbara (land records) were collected. They were then made to sign English-language bank documents. It is alleged that these documents were used to take agricultural loans running into lakhs of rupees in the farmers' names.

The loans were taken from two SBI branches. Rs 54,69,42,850 was taken from the Mauda branch and Rs 19,13,50,000 from the Ramtek branch. Together, the fraud totals Rs 73,82,92,850.

The investigation has also found that fake companies were set up and the loan money was transferred to the bank accounts of these companies. The investigation is continuing.