In a major breakthrough, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch has arrested six individuals, including a woman, for defrauding the State Bank of India (SBI) of Rs16.71 crore. The accused allegedly posed as employees of PhonePe, a leading digital payments company, and tricked the bank into approving multiple high-value personal loans using forged documents.
The main accused, Anirban Patnaik (26), and his wife Anupama Dash (24), along with Tophan Rout, Satyaban Rout, Tukuna Mallick, and Feroz Khan, were arrested after a thorough investigation by the EOW. The fraud came to light after the SBI manager, Shiba Sundar Sahoo, filed a complaint on August 12, detailing how the accused had secured 161 Xpress credit loans from the bank by impersonating PhonePe employees.
The scamsters set up a fully operational fake office of PhonePe in Bhubaneswar by renting a space in the DLF Cybercity area. They put up PhonePe branding and used fabricated documents, including salary slips and email addresses, to make their applications appear legitimate. The group targeted the bank’s Xpress Credit loan scheme, which allows individuals to avail personal loans up to Rs30 lakh. Between November 2022 and October 2023, they secured loans by submitting fake salary slips showing high salaries.
The group managed to obtain a total of 139 loans from the Jaydev Vihar branch, five loans from Patia, 11 loans from Raghunathpur, and six loans from Jharpada branches of SBI. As part of their ploy, they even fabricated salary records and made transactions to show that their bank accounts were genuine, deceiving the bank’s loan verification processes.
According to sources, the mastermind Anirban Patnaik and his associates operated with a clear strategy: they rented office space, set up fake PhonePe offices, and manipulated bank officials into approving loans by presenting falsified employment documents. It was revealed that the accused collected 35% of the loan amount credited to the loan applicants, while the rest went to the individuals who fraudulently received the loans.
The EOW is currently verifying the exact number of individuals who were involved in this large-scale fraud. The investigation is also exploring the possible involvement of SBI bank officials in the scheme.
