Cuttack: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police on Tuesday arrested three women employees of the State Bank of India (SBI) in connection with a multi-crore loan fraud case.

The accused have been identified as Baishakhi Saha, Charubala Dandasena and Sarita Paikaray. They were arrested in connection with EOW Police Station Case No. 08 dated May 5, 2026, registered under Sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC.

The arrested officials will be produced before the designated OPID Act-cum-Special Court for EOW in Cuttack.

Earlier, a middleman identified as Smruti Ranjan Mohanty was arrested on May 20, 2026, for allegedly arranging fake loanees using forged documents. He is currently in judicial custody.

The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Shiba Sundar Sahoo, Regional Manager of SBI, Bhubaneswar. According to the complaint, the accused officials, in conspiracy with others, fraudulently sanctioned and processed 282 Xpress Credit Loans amounting to Rs 13.92 crore across multiple SBI branches between May 2022 and November 2023.

The loans were disbursed from Rail Vihar (150 accounts), Fortune Tower (115), Patia (8) and Damana (9) branches using forged employment records, including fake salary certificates, bank statements and KYC documents. The loanees were falsely shown as employees of organisations such as Tata Steel Ltd., TPCODL, Vedanta Ltd., Dhamra Port and Aarati Steels Ltd.

After availing the loans, the borrowers defaulted on EMIs, resulting in non-performing assets (NPAs) with an outstanding amount of Rs 6.88 crore.

Probe reveals

During the investigation, it was revealed that Baishakhi Saha, currently posted as Assistant Manager (Credit & NPA) at SBI’s Regional Business Office-2 in Bhubaneswar, had earlier served as Service Manager at Rail Vihar branch during 2022–23. She allegedly processed 143 fraudulent loans worth Rs 6.22 crore in collusion with other accused.

Charubala Dandasena, who served as Service Manager at Damana Square branch during the same period, allegedly processed nine fraudulent loans worth Rs 30.17 lakh.

Sarita Paikaray, then Branch Manager of the same branch, is accused of sanctioning nine such loans amounting to Rs 30.17 lakh in conspiracy with others.

An internal probe by the bank found serious lapses and gross violations of norms by the accused officials, following which they were placed under suspension.

Investigators have seized several incriminating documents, including forged salary certificates, employment records, bank statements and KYC papers.