Barabanki, Oct 9 (Always First) The Lucknow Police have arrested a Bank manager and two of his aides on Sunday for embezzling Rs 1.5 crore in Mudra loans from a government bank in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district.

The accused, Aman Verma, Shailendra Pratap Pankaj and Suresh Madhu Rawat, would get loans sanctioned in the names of innocent villagers and then withdraw the money.

They duped as many as 50 people in Barabanki alone and police claimed that they may have duped hundreds of people in Lucknow, Kanpur, Hardoi and Sitapur districts.

The police got on the case after several people lodged such complaints about the fraud.

Barabanki Superintendent of Police Dinesh Singh said that during interrogation, it was revealed that Rawat was the mastermind of the scam.

He had got Pankaj transferred to the bank branch in Barauli Malik through his acquaintances in the bank.

“Rawat and Pankaj would give plain stamp papers, KYC related, loan-related and withdrawal forms to the less educated people in villages by introducing themselves as government servants. They would take the villagers’ Aadhaar cards on the pretext of getting them jobs in private companies,” said the officer.

These documents were then given to Verma, the Bank Manager in Barauli Malik.

He would open bank accounts in the villagers’ names and get ATM cards issued. Verma would then process Mudra loans in these accounts and transfer the money to the accounts of Rawat and his acquaintances through NEFT and RTGS, the officer added.