Couple takes Rs 22 lakh loan from bank in name of dead person

Vadodara, Sep 28 (UNI) A city court has directed the local police to investigate an alleged Rs 22 lakh fraud involving the Raopura branch of the Central Bank of India here.

The fraud recently came to light when the bank initiated property auction proceedings against a borrower couple for recovery of the bank loan, and discovered that the couple were impostors who had made a vanishing act after duping the bank in the name of a dead person.

According to the petition filed by the bank manager Rajveer Singh, at least five persons, including one of the Vadodara-based customers of the bank -- Anil Kumar Patel and the coulple who identified themselves as Pannalal Sundarlal Chowksi and Sardaben Chowksi of Visnagar village in Savli taluka, had conspired to dupe the bank with forged documents and land records of a dead person for sanction of agricultural loans to the tune of Rs 22 lakh in October, 2004.

After the bank published the names of the defaulters in a local newspaper for auction of the property mortgaged to it, the relatives of the dead person came forward challenging the bank's auction plan. A departmental inquiry found that the real owner of the property had died much before the loan was sanctioned to the impostors. All the five accused were reportedly absconding.

UNI SS MAZ AKJ RK2148