J-K police forms SIT to probe into KCC fraud case

Jammu and Kashmir Police today said it has constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe fraud in the Kisan Credit Card scheme and presence of anonymous accounts in a bank in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Police has constituted a SIT to investigate KCC loan fraud in a local bank branch that surfaced last month. About 23 KCC loan cases from the bank have so far been found to be sanctioned without the knowledge of the account holders," a police spokesman said here.
He said the police had registered a case last month when a resident of Pathan area of the district approached Pulwama police station with a report that the Elaquai Dehati Bank, Branch Pulwama had served her a notice for non-payment of KCC loan that she had neither applied for nor availed.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, a SIT under the supervision of deputy superintendent (headquarters) Pulwama was constituted and the investigation of the case was started, he said.
The SIT while perusing the records of the bank called in all the non-performing beneficiaries of KCC loans issued by the bank branch during the year 2013-14, the spokesman said.
He said 97 non-performing KCC loan accounts beneficiaries were summoned to appear before the investigating team to find out the facts.

Out of 97 non-performing accounts, so far 57 beneficiaries have reported before the SIT and among them 23 beneficiaries revealed that they have never applied for such loan in the said bank branch, the spokesman said.

He said it surfaced further during the investigations that some of the anonymous (benami) accounts also existed in the said bank branch.
The investigation of the case is going on, the spokesman said, adding that police is expecting a significant breakthrough in the coming days.
A KCC is a credit card to provide affordable credit for farmers in India. It was started by the Centre, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1998-99 to help farmers access timely and adequate credit.