Former bank manager arrested for embezzlement of Rs 1.5 cr in Odisha

Former manager of a

nationalised bank in Odisha's Kendrapara district was arrested for allegedly embezzling around Rs 1.5 crore, police said on Saturday.

Manmohan Mohanty allegedly perpetrated the fraud when he was the manager of Canara Bank's Kakat branch in 2016, they said.

Mohanty had sanctioned loans in the name of 14 account holders based on forged documents and cheques, said Jyotiranjan Samantray, the inspector of Kendrapara town police station.

He was dismissed from service in 2018 after the fraud was detected by an audit squad of the bank, the police officer said.

Police swung into action after a local businessman, Satyajit Das, complained, alleging that a sum of Rs 13 lakh was withdrawn from his account, he said.

Das had applied for a commercial loan and handed over documents and signed blank cheques to Mohanty as prerequisites for the sanctioning of the loan, police said.

The loan was not sanctioned but Rs 13 lakh was withdrawn from his account, they said.

Mohanty allegedly defrauded 13 other businessmen in a similar fashion, they said.

"Mohanty has been evading arrest. Acting on a tip-off, we arrested him from the Saheed Nagar police station area in Bhubaneswar on Friday," Samantray said.

"He owns luxury apartments in Bhubaneswar and Pipili. Besides, he has purchased prime plots in Kendrapara town," he added.

Mohanty has been booked under relevant sections of the IPC, including 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security) and 468 (forgery for cheating).

When produced at the court, he was sent to judicial custody.