Customers unable to withdraw funds after bank fraud uncovered

Solan, September 1

Customers of Nohradhar branch of HP State Cooperative Bank are facing problems as they are unable to withdraw money deposited in the bank after a multi-crore embezzlement came to the fore on August 5.

A sum of Rs 4.02 crore has been embezzled from the Nohradhar branch of HP State Cooperative Bank by its manager Jyoti Prakash, who opened fake Kisan Credit Cards to embezzle money, besides defrauding the account holders of their savings. An FIR was registered by the district manager Priyadarshan Pandey with Sangrah police on August 11.

Several villagers had deposited their entire proceeds received as compensation for acquisition of their arable land and houses for an upcoming 40 MW Renuka dam project. Many such displaced families are constructing houses and are in dire need of money. They were unable to encash their fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) after the scam.

Inder Pal, a resident, who had availed a loan of Rs 46 lakh was in the process of getting back his FDR pledged for availing the bank. Talking to The Tribune, he said: “Despite closing the loan account, entries were found in my account, wherein money had been transferred to the account of a bank official. I failed to get my FDR as my loan account could not be closed.” He was now banking on the assurance given by the managing director and chairman of the bank that all wrongs would be rectified by September 10 and all customers would be able to access their accounts.

Surinder, a customer, who had deposited Rs 80 lakh in the bank has been left with a balance of Rs 1,100. He was constructing a house and was finding it difficult to pay Rs 30 lakh to the contractor.

Customers said that the limit of their accounts have been altered and even after closing their loan accounts they continued to be operative and multiple transactions had been made. Customers rued that they were not encouraged to use the Himpesa mobile banking application, which provides access to all banking services. This would have helped them track their savings and FDR accounts and could have averted embezzlement from their accounts.

The bank has around 9,000 customers. Since the dam oustees had deposited large sums of money in the bank, the scale of the embezzlement could climb to Rs 10 crore, as estimated by a section of the bank officials.

FIR registered

• Jyoti Prakash, manager of the Nohradhar branch of HP State Cooperative Bank, opened fake Kisan Credit Cards to embezzle money, besides defrauding the account holders of their savings. An FIR was registered by the district manager Priyadarshan Pandey with Sangrah police on August 11
• Several villagers had deposited their entire proceeds received as compensation for acquisition of their arable land. Many such displaced families are constructing houses and are in dire need of money. They were unable to encash their FDRs after the scam.