Three more held in Rs 73.82 crore SBI farm loan fraud case in Nagpur Rural

Nagpur Rural police have arrested three more members of an alleged interstate gang. They are accused of fraudulently taking out farm loans in the names of poor farmers and cheating the State Bank of India (SBI) of Rs 73.82 crore.

As the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) stepped up its investigation, Dr Madan Gopal Mallikarjun Patil (26) was picked up from Bengaluru. Two other accused, Priyaranjan Ashok Kumar Chaudhary (42), alias Gaurav Mishra and Gaurav Jaiswal, and Rahul alias Sandeep Satish Dubey (37), were arrested on November 3 from Nakshatra Nagar in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

Chaudhary is said to be a resident of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and was allegedly living in Hubballi, Karnataka. Dubey is a resident of Jabalpur. The arrests have brought out the interstate aspect of the alleged gang, as the accused were carrying out the fraud while living in different states.

According to the police investigation, the accused obtained fake agricultural loans of Rs 54,69,42,850 from SBI's Mauda branch and Rs 19,13,50,000 from its Ramtek branch. Together, the amount comes to Rs 73,82,92,850.

The investigation has found that the accused allegedly set up fake companies and routed the loan money through their accounts. The money obtained on forged documents was moved around in this way.

The gang is alleged to have exploited the Produce Marketing Loan Scheme. For this, purported fake licences of the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) in Delhi were got made. On the strength of these licences and forged electronic warehouse receipts, large loans were sanctioned by the bank.

Poor and mostly unlettered farmers of Savner and Ramtek tehsils fell victim. The accused allegedly approached the farmers and promised them Rs 10,000 a year in government compensation for crop loss. They told the farmers that opening a bank account, or providing its details, was necessary to receive the government aid.

Trusting them, the farmers handed over their Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and key land documents, including the 7/12 extract, to the accused. The accused are also alleged to have taken the farmers to the bank and had them sign papers written in English. Many of the farmers could neither read nor understand them, and so allegedly did not know that large agricultural loans were being drawn on their signatures.

Loans worth lakhs of rupees were sanctioned in the farmers' names on the papers collected on the pretext of government compensation, and they were not even informed. The money was sent to the accounts of fake companies created by the gang. It is alleged that a parallel web of fake companies, fake warehouse licences and fabricated electronic receipts was set up to make the fraud more watertight.

In this case, the EOW has earlier arrested Sachin Karemore. After the latest arrests, investigators are working to unravel the whole network. A total of 18 people have been named in the cases registered at Mauda and Ramtek police stations.

The investigation is being carried out under the supervision of Nagpur Rural Superintendent of Police Dr Harsh Poddar and Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Mhaske. Police officers have also learnt that Chaudhary is alleged to face similar fraud cases in Karnataka. This suggests that the series of financial crimes may have spread beyond Maharashtra.

The EOW is now identifying the remaining accused, tracing the full money trail and determining the role of the fake companies. It is also examining how the fake warehouse licences and electronic receipts were obtained and how they were authenticated. Investigators are also scrutinising the fake companies, bank transactions and the documents used for the loans, and trying to find out who finally received the money.

The case raises serious questions about scrutiny in farm lending and the vulnerability of rural banking to organised document forgery. The farmers, who were promised a modest Rs 10,000 in government aid, were allegedly used as unwitting pawns in transactions of more than Rs 73 crore.