Punjab vigilance arrests two female POs in bank loan forgery case

The vigilance bureau (VB) Punjab on Saturday arrested two accused women, who were proclaimed offenders (PO) and wanted in a forgery case registered by the VB in 2017.

A spokesperson of the state VB said, the accused duo Anita and Ambika, both residents of Sultanpur Lodhi, were declared POs in January 2021, in a case under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC and 13(1), 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act at VB police station Jalandhar.

He said while Anita is the wife of Tilak Raj, former councillor from Sultanpur Lodhi, Ambika is Raj’s mother. Tilak Raj has already been arrested in this case on February 5, 2018.

As per the VB spokesperson, the accused women have connived with officials of State Bank of India (SBI) branch Sultanpur Lodhi and the revenue department to get loans amounting to ₹20 lakhs and ₹28 lakhs respectively on forged and fabricated documents. Both Anita and Ambika were absconding since August 28, 2018 after the dismissal of their bail from the high court.

The spokesperson said a total of 107 cases pertaining to agricultural loans from SBI were sanctioned by the then-accused manager Sulinder Singh and others between May 2013 and April 2016, on the basis of forged and fabricated documents leading to embezzlement of ₹15.83 crore.

He added that the VB during first phase investigated 14 loan cases and a total number of 33 accused were nominated in these cases. 26 accused have been arrested till now and 7 would be arrested very soon, the VB spokesperson said.