Ex-bank manager among 5 awarded 14-year jail term for fraud

Chief judicial magistrate, Mayurbhanj, Bikash Chandra Dey, convicted the five for embezzlement of Rs 1.31 crore from Jharapokharia branch of the Bank of India (BOI). Government pleader Santosh Kumar Prusty said that in 2012-13 financial year, these five people withdrew the money by using fake documents relating to the Odisha government's Jalnidhi scheme, in which the state provides Rs 1 lakh to beneficiary farmers to avail water pumps at a subsidised rate.

A court here in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district on Thursday sentenced five people including a former manager of a nationalised bank to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment in a Rs 1.31 crore fraud case. Chief judicial magistrate, Mayurbhanj, Bikash Chandra Dey, convicted the five for embezzlement of Rs 1.31 crore from Jharapokharia branch of the Bank of India (BOI).

Government pleader Santosh Kumar Prusty said that in 2012-13 financial year, these five people withdrew the money by using fake documents relating to the Odisha government's Jalnidhi scheme, in which the state provides Rs 1 lakh to beneficiary farmers to avail water pumps at a subsidised rate. The convicted persons are BOI's Jharapokharia branch the then manager Girija Mishra, its ex-field officer Satyarupa Mohanty, suppliers Bangali Jena and Sushant Jena and agent Satyananda Patra.

The bank manager and the field officer were dismissed from the service after they were found to have committed the fraud in connivance with the other three. After Mishra's tenure, Srikant Mohanty took over as manager of the branch and detected the fraud. He drew the attention of the higher authorities and a police case was filed.

The police registered an FIR in this regard on November 19, 2014, Prusty said.