18 cases registered
The arrested accused have been identified as Madan Gopal Mallikarjun Patil (26), a resident of Bengaluru, Priyaranjan Ashok Kumar Chaudhary alias Gaurav Mishra alias Gaurav Jaiswal (42), and Rahul alias Sandeep Satish Dubey (37). Patil was arrested in Bengaluru on Nov 1, while the other two were apprehended from Nakshatra Nagar in Jabalpur on Nov 3. The gang members allegedly approached farmers with the promise of providing Rs10,000 annually as govt compensation for crop damage, according to police.
Nagpur: Three members of an interstate gang allegedly involved in defrauding farmers of Rs73 crore by fraudulently obtaining agricultural loans from a nationalised bank have been arrested by rural police. Chaudhary and Mishra hail from Jabalpur. They persuaded them to open bank accounts. Later, the three collected farmers’ Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and land records.
Investigation revealed that loans amounting to Rs54 crore were obtained from a bank’s Mouda branch and Rs19 crore from its Ramtek branch. The farmers were then made to sign documents in English, without understanding their contents, which were allegedly used to secure agricultural loans worth lakhs of rupees.