Khammam: More and more skeletons are tumbling out regarding the pattadar passbook forgery scam in which loans worth crores were given by an IOB branch in Sattupalli to people with forged documents. It is learnt that the government is considering a special officer to investigate the scam.
Earlier, seven persons, including branch manager Kondru Prasad were taken into custody and they are being interrogated.
Cases were filed against them under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120 B.
The revenue officials have verified the documents produced by various farmers who obtained crop loans. Interestingly, 443 of the 455 persons from Dammapet mandal who obtained loans from the IOB branch in Sattupalli produced forged documents. Likewise, 36 of the 37 borrowers from Vemsoor mandal, 16 of the 16 in Penuballi mandal, six of the seven in Mulakapalli and 60 of the 101 borrowers in Sattupalli mandal produced forged documents.
The borrowers allegedly forged the signatures of the village revenue officer, mandal revenue officer, sub-registrar and revenue divisional officer and submitted the documents at the IOB branch.
The scam is being investigated by police official Rajendra Prasad.
As per details, a total of Rs 6.25 crore was borrowed as crop loans from the bank.
The bank officials’ negligence is evident from the fact that it would have been easy for them to verify the bonafides of the documents online and checking the 1-B accounts of the farmers. An app called ‘Maabhoomi’ can help officials find the 1-B account numbers.
The middlemen, who connived with bank officials, prepared the forgeries and gave them to the borrowers.
If someone without possessing any land wanted a loan from the bank, the middlemen charged 60 per cent. A farmer who owned lands and submitted documents to another bank and wanted to take a second loan, was asked to pay 40 per cent commission on the loans.
An official said, “We believe the scam will reveal many more irregularities as verification of the documents in other banks goes on.”
