Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested two State Bank of India officials in connection with a Rs 5.21 crore fake gold loan scam at the Balichandrapur branch in Jajpur.
The arrested officials are Chandan Kumar Mahala and Devendra Niranjan Sahu.
Investigators revealed that between October 2024 and July 2025, 105 gold loans were sanctioned using forged documents and fake signatures. Preliminary inquiry showed that 62 loan accounts had no gold pledged, with only paperwork used to siphon off large sums of money.
EOW had earlier arrested bank gold appraiser Prashant Kumar Mallik on April 21, 2026. The investigation began after Jagatsinghpur SBI Regional Manager Piyush Ranjan Swain filed a written complaint. Officials confirmed that forged customer signatures and missing valuation reports formed the basis of the fraudulent loans.
