FIR filed against 16 in loan fraud at cooperative bank

Lucknow: A financial fraud involving alleged illegal loan disbursement and fund diversion amounting to Rs21.47 crore surfaced at the Gonda branch of UP State Cooperative Bank, prompting the registration of an FIR against 16 persons, including former branch managers. The case surfaced on Wednesday.The complaint was lodged by Bhuvan Chandra Sati, assistant general manager of Gonda branch, following an audit by an RBI-empanelled chartered accountant. The audit revealed large-scale irregularities in loan sanctioning and disbursement, allegedly carried out in violation of banking norms prescribed by RBI and NABARD.
According to the FIR, the fraud was orchestrated during the tenures of former branch managers Pawan Kumar Pal (Dec 2021-May 2023 and July 2024-June 2025), Ajay Kumar (May 2023-July 2024), and Sushil Kumar Gautam. The accused allegedly formed a criminal syndicate involving bank employees and select account holders to illegally sanction loans without verifying mandatory documents such as income certificates, collateral valuation reports and eligibility records.The audit report stated that in several cases, loans were sanctioned on the basis of forged and fabricated documents. Investigators found that at least Rs46.13 lakh was siphoned off by unauthorised debits from five internal bank accounts and transferred to private accounts before being withdrawn. In addition, Rs21.01 crore belonging to depositors was allegedly diverted through various banking channels, taking the total misappropriated amount to Rs21.47 crore. SP, Gonda, Vineet Jaiswal said that police registered the case under relevant sections related to cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, criminal conspiracy, abuse of official position and misappropriation of funds.