Loan frauds have been alleged in the Andhra Bank, Keonjhar Branch with cash having been withdrawn from many customers without their knowledge.

The matter had come to the fore on November 5, 2018 when Monika Singh of Rasiklal Colony received a bank notice asking her to repay a loan amounting Rs 25,73,860.

According to Monika, she had applied for a housing loan of Rs 30 lakh to buy a patch of land and construct a building on it. After loan approval, she spent Rs 9 lakh for buying a plot and Rs 2 lakh for laying the foundation of the house. After bank notice, she found that Rs 10,70,154 had been debited from her account without her knowledge. Documents obtained from the bank through RTI revealed that Rs 5,13,168 was withdrawn by unsigned loose withdrawal cheque no. 315500 and Rs 5,56,986 vide cheque no 315499. Monika claims that she never issued these cheques to anyone.

“It is a clear case of fraud since the cash has been withdrawn from my account through withdrawal slips without my signature and handwritten cheque number,” she said, adding that the fraud is not possible without the involvement of bank staffs.

The cheque leafs were not issued from the cheque book issued to Monika. According to bank rules, a bank releases housing loan in phased manner depending on the progress of house construction. But in this case, it is suspicious how the manager disbursed so much amount without verifying the progress of construction of the house and allowed withdrawal of cash through unsigned cheques.

In the meantime, Andhra Bank has been merged with Union Bank and, thus, Monika has lodged a complaint with the concerned Zonal Manager, requesting for a probe by local police.

“We are aware of such a complaint and a high-level inquiry is going on,” said Branch Manager Sunaram Naik.