Police have arrested 23 persons of a racket involved in embezzling `48 lakh from Indian Bank branch by submitting fake documents, was busted by Bargarh Town police on Tuesday morning.
One Atmaram Panda of Dhanger village under Bargarh Sadar police limits, who is suspected to be the brain behind the fraud, managed to get an anticipatory bail from the Orissa High Court. He has currently, fled from the village. Involvement of bank officials in the fraud has not been ruled out. Police said bank officials are being quizzed and more arrests in the case are likely.
According to the preliminary investigation, 23 persons of the district had submitted forged documents and availed agriculture loans. Panda had helped them in preparing the fake documents and with the help of some officials of Indian Bank, got their loans sanctioned.
All the arrested persons hail from villages in Dhanger, Jamuda and Tora areas of the district. They had mentioned their wrong addresses in the documents submitted to the bank.
