PNB detects Rs 5.5-crore fraud at Haryana’s Bhiwani branch
The accused had mortgaged a 13 kanal (3,600 sq ft) plot owned by them in Uttam Nagar to avail the loan by delivering the ‘original sale deed’ registered with the office of sub-registrar Bhiwani.
Close on the heels of the Nirav Modi scam in Punjab National Bank, one of its branches in Haryana’s Bhiwani have detected a fraud wherein a mother-son duo obtained ₹5.5 crore loan against mortgage of fake property documents.
The chief manager of the PNB branch at Clock Tower in Bhiwani lodged an FIR on Thursday against the duo who secured the loan for construction of a school against the equitable mortgage of properties owned by them.
The accused were identified as Ashok Kumar and Rishal Kaur — owners of Bhuri Devi Shiksha Samiti.
The bank claimed that it granted Rs 2 crore term loan to the accused in 2010 for the construction of a school building and purchase of equipment at Mohamad Nagar tehsil in the district. It added that another term loan of Rs 3.2 crore was granted in 2011 for additional construction and an overdraft limit of Rs 30 lakh was granted later in the year for day-to-day functioning of the school.
The accused had mortgaged a 13 kanal (3,600 sq ft) plot owned by them in Uttam Nagar to avail the loan by delivering the ‘original sale deed’ registered with the office of sub-registrar Bhiwani.
When the accused failed to repay the loan, the bank decided to auction their property in 2017 under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI). One Rajmati, being the highest bidder got the plot through auction.
Rajmati, however, intimated the bank that the property did not actually exist at the spot as mentioned in the sale deed submitted to the bank by accused while taking the loan.
When the bank demarcated the plot through tehsildar, it found the boundaries of the property did not tally with that submitted in documents.
Based on the bank’s complaint, police booked Ashok and his mother Rishal under Sections 120B, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code.
Bank chief manager Surender Kumar Gupta said it followed protocols and claimed that other institutions involved in the process were responsible.