Doubts over bank official’s role in loan fraud

• He never consulted mandal agriculture official before granting loans
• He is reportedly a close friend of the father of the main accused

Bhimavaram: There were allegations galore on the role of a bank official in the loan fraud amounting to Rs 50 lakh that took place at Navuduru branch of Andhra Bank.

According to tenant farmers, bank manager B Sanyasi Rao had never consulted the mandal agriculture officer before sanctioning the huge amount of loans.

This gives room to the suspicion that he was in hand in glove with one P Harshavardhan Sivaprasad, an outsourcing MPEO with the agriculture department.

His duty is to explain government schemes to the farmers and helping them in preventing pest attacks and diseases to the crop.

However, the Veeravasaram mandal agriculture department staffer succeeded in issuing cultivation declaration certificates to the benami farmers and forged the signature of mandal agriculture official.

Without issuing notices to the tenant farmers, he formed groups with farmers belonging to Navuduru, Konitivada and Madugu Polavaram and secured loans by producing fake documents.

The main accused is the son of former sarpanch Lakshmi Mutyalu and Veeravasaram mandal TDP unit secretary P Venkateswara Rao.

The tenant farmers allege that the accused benefited from the close friendship the bank manager had with his father.