OUR CORRESPONDENT
TINSUKIA: Due to alleged improper police investigation in a land forgery case, a rural land owner is now moving pillar to post for recovery of his land after the bank manager of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Tinsukia (currently merged with Punjab National Bank), in connivance with a fraudster allegedly syphoned off Rs 50 lakh, which the fraudster had withdrawn after submitting doctored documents against a fake company in which the land owner was shown as one of the guarantors.
While the bank manager was transferred to an unknown branch outside Assam, the fraudster fled Tinsukia after winding up his establishment. The case came to light recently after the Debt Recovery Tribunal issued notice to the landowner for confiscation of his property.
Projecting the case in detail before the media on Sunday, land owner Monoj Chutia of Jayanagar Gelapukhuri Tinsukia, possessing a plot of land under Dag No. 322 (old) PP17 (old) in Gelapukhuri Gaon under Rangagora Mauza, said he approached the bank in 2019 through a business acquaintance, Anand Rasiwasia of DM Road Tinsukia, for a housing loan of Rs. 10 lakh and submitted all land documents to the bank. The bank manager, Amit Kr Jhah, took his signature on various documents that were allegedly not disclosed to Chutia. They assured Chutia of crediting the loan amount to his account but did not do that. Chutia gave up the hope of getting a housing loan. Surprisingly, on November 11, 2019, he received a notice from OBC under the SRFAECI Act 2002 that listed his name as guarantor of M/s BS Trading, a company allegedly floated by Rasiwasia, which turned out to be fake along with Anand Rasiwasia, and the company had taken a loan of Rs 50 lakh. The notice stated further that the loan amount turned NPA and Rs 24,288,27 is due to the bank, and liability if not discharged, the land will be auctioned. He also wondered as to how the bank could sanction a loan of Rs 50 lakh against the land value of Rs 6,80,000 after assessment by the bank itself in 2019, which Chutia bought at Rs 70,000 in 2012.
Chutia alleged that BS Trading received the loan without submitting any commercial-related papers, including IT returns, and that the guarantee agreement carried his signatures, which were fake. Rasiwasia, who was also a guarantor, did not mortgage any property, claimed Chutia. Though Chutia filed an FIR in Tinsukia Sadar PS on January 31, 2020, police allegedly did not initiate any inquiry. Had police investigated properly, then not only culprits would have been booked, but his valued property would have been saved, Chutia lamented. He demanded the revocation of the Tribunal's order and the arrest of the untraced bank manager and Rasiwasia.
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