E-Paper
Mohali: Punjab Gramin Bank’s former manager, agent booked for ₹9 cr loan fraud
A former Punjab Gramin Bank manager and a loan agent face charges for ₹9 crore fraud, sanctioning fake loans with forged documents.
A former manager of the Punjab Gramin Bank’s Naraingarh Jhugian branch in Derabassi, and a private loan agent have been booked for allegedly causing a loss of ₹9 crore to the bank by sanctioning dozens of fraudulent loans using forged documents.
The accused have been identified as former branch manager Harjeet Singh and loan agent Neeraj Kumar Kochhar.
The complaint was lodged by Anil Kumar, chief manager of the bank’s regional office, who alleged that between July 4, 2022, and November 2024, when Singh was posted in the Naraingarh Jhugian, he sanctioned 62 fraudulent loans without conducting mandatory verifications. He has since been suspended.
The matter first came to the fore during an internal inspection by a team from Kapurthala, which found suspicious patterns in the disbursement of loans. It was found that the salary slips, Form 16s, bank statements, employment certificates and KYC documents submitted with the applications were fake. Several applicants, when tracked down, denied applying for loans, while others could not be traced.
Investigation further revealed that the loan money was directly or indirectly transferred into Singh’s Punjab National Bank account and Kochhar’s Axis Bank account.
As per the inquiry report, Kochhar produced fake borrowers and arranged forged documents to make the applications appear genuine. Signatures on many loan forms did not match those on identity documents, yet the files were processed and cleared by the branch manager without verification. Based on the inquiry findings, the bank concluded that both accused acted deliberately and in collusion to defraud the institution.
After confirming the discrepancies, the bank compiled its facts and findings reports and submitted them to the competent authority. The authority then directed that the matter be reported to the law enforcement agencies. The bank had initially approached the CBI but after the agency declined to take up the matter, the bank pursued the complaint with Punjab Police and got the FIR registered.
The case has been registered under Sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust), 318(3)/318(4) (cheating), 319 (2) (cheating by impersonation), 336(2)/336(3)/338 (forgery), 340(2) (fraudulently or dishonestly use a forged document or electronic record as genuine), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
