SBI Loan Fraud: EOW Arrests Key Middleman in Rs 6.88 Cr Scam

The Economic Offences Wing has stepped up its action against the Rs 6.88 crore State Bank of India (SBI) lending scam, arresting a key player in the operation. Pradipta Kumar Lenka, who comes from Cuttack, was taken into custody within the capital city on Wednesday. Investigators say he acted as the intermediary, linking corrupt bank employees with unqualified borrowers. When they followed the money, they found Lenka received at least Rs 3.23 lakh through direct transfers as his share for pulling the strings in this multi-crore racket.

Lenka’s arrest sheds light on how the group managed to push through 282 fake “Xpress Credit Loans” without raising alarms between May 2022 and November 2023. He basically worked as a documents broker—collecting and distributing forged employment files good enough to fool normal banking checks. The network faked salary slips, bank statements, and credentials, making ordinary applicants seem like top professionals at big names like Tata Steel, Vedanta, TPCODL, Dhamra Port, and Aarati Steels.

His capture cracks the case wide open, exposing a bigger plot involving four insiders now in judicial custody. That group includes three female bank staff—Baishakhi Saha, Charubala Dandasena, and Sarita Paikaray—plus Smruti Ranjan Mohanty. All of them worked out of four local SBI branches: Patia, Damana, Fortune Tower, and Rail Vihar. These bank employees looked the other way on fake KYC and job records, green-lighting the loans until the accounts eventually crashed and became Non-Performing Assets.

All this started after SBI Regional Manager Shiba Sundar Sahoo filed a criminal complaint on May 5, 2026. With Lenka now under arrest and his phone in police hands for forensic checks, EOW sleuths are zeroing in on the rest of the borrowers and working to recover what’s left of the stolen Rs 6.88 crore.