Another PNB scam: Rs 6.2 mn MUDRA loan fraud case comes to light

New Delhi : Fresh troubles land on Punjab National Bank as the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) registered a new case related to fraudulent loans issued under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship scheme MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency).

According to reports, a branch manager at PNB's Barmer branch in Rajasthan "dishonestly and fraudulently sanctioned and disbursed 26 Mudra loans" in the year 2016 and 2017, resulting in a total loss of 6.2 million rupees.

The case came to light during the CBI investigations for an alleged 114 billion-scam that included fraudulent loans to Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

In a bid to boost self-employment, the NDA government had announced MUDRA scheme to give unsecured loans of up to Rs 1 million to small enterprises. Under the scheme rate of interests are less compared to other loans and the borrower is not required to submit any collateral to the banks.

However, after sanction or disbursement of the loan, the borrower is required to create an asset using the money that acts as a security to the bank against the sanctioned loan.

In this case, no assets were created out of the loans sanctioned under Mudra.