Daily Pioneer: Lucknow: Tuesday, June 19, 2018.
With top
agencies of the country already probing the multi-crore loan scam by Nirav Modi
from Punjab National Bank, an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act
exposed another `loan scam’ in Saharanpur branch of the said bank.
Surprisingly,
the probe made so far in the above scam found complicity of bank officials in
the rip-off but no action was taken by the top brass and instead innocents were
harassed which even led to the death of one of them.
Giving
details on Monday, State Information Commissioner Hafiz Usman disclosed that a
loan of Rs 70 lakh was sanctioned in the name of Saharanpur resident from
Fatehpur branch of Punjab National Bank in 2012.
Usman said
that the complainant who filed an appeal in his court claimed that bank
officials got some vouchers signed from him which they later used to withdraw
the entire loan amount and gave nothing to him.
When the
victim contacted the bank, he was shocked to learn that not only he, but half a
dozen others were also affected. The victims included some farmers.
On March 27,
2014, he submitted a written complaint to Branch Manager Manoj Kumar Agarwal,
who did nothing.Hence on April 12, 2014, the complainant contacted PNB’s
regional office in-charge PP Sharma and Rajendra Rathore and urged them to look
into the rip-off. But instead of redressingthe probelm, the bank brass through
their advocate issued notice to him for recovery of Rs 33 lakh and Rs 75 lakh
respectively.
The
complainant said that notices were issued even when the Branch Manager admitted
that forgery was done in the case against him. The complainant subsequently met
PNB chairman and Vigilance department chief in New Delhi and appraised them of
the irregularities and harassment.
Afterinitially
ignoring his plea, the bank brass took notice when the complainant filed a RTI.
The Vigilance department through its audit teams probed the charges and found
that bank officials had conspired to cheat customers in the name of sanctioning
loan and brought a bad name to the branch. The report was then forwarded for
further action.
However,
instead of action against bank officials, the Branch Manager published notice
in papers to get the complainant’s company confiscated in the name of recovery
of Rs 75 lakh ‘loan’ on December 18, 2014 and the complauinat was given a
month’;s time to repay .But within a week’s time, the bank lodged an FIR
against him by Acting Manager Balbeer Singh on Decmeber 24, 2014. It later
transpired that Singh’s signature in the FIR was also forged.
The
complainant also filed an FIR in this regard with Fatehpur police station and
the police claimed that as per documents, the forgery was made by PNB officials
including the then Manager Ashwini Agarwal, Manoj Agarwal, Kranti Kumar,
Sanjeev Garg (bank agent), Krishna Lal and others.
The SIC said
that as even top officials were aware of the forgery and that many more
residents might also be duped by the PNB branch, hence he asked SSP of
Saharanpur to probe the matter and submit report.
Usman said
that he would now write to the state government to form a specialized team to
probe the entire irregularity so that all culprits could be punished.
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