Surat: A recovery manager of nationalized and his alleged accomplice have been booked for allegedly cheating a Surat family by transferring their mortgaged property to a third person despite the family having settled its loan through a one-time settlement (OTS) and obtained a no-dues certificate.According to an FIR registered at Khatodara police station on Nov 13, complainant Vishakha Khakholiya, 47, said her husband had availed cash credit and term loan facilities totalling around Rs 1.15 crore from the bank’s Bhatar Road branch between 2012 and 2016. Their property at Parvat Patiya was mortgaged against the loans, with Vishakha and her husband’s friend Pradip Agrawal acting as guarantors.As the family failed to repay the dues, which reportedly stood at Rs 74 lakh, the account turned into a non-performing asset (NPA), following which the bank took possession of and sealed the property.Agrawal subsequently approached the bank for a one-time settlement (OTS), which was processed by Sanjay Kumar Sinha, then chief manager of the Regional Stressed Assets Recovery Branch (ROSARB). The bank reportedly agreed to settle the loan for Rs 51.50 lakh, which Agrawal paid.Following the settlement, the bank returned the original property documents and issued a no-dues certificate, leading the family to believe that its property had been released from the mortgage.However, the complainant alleged that the recovery manager, in collusion with a person named Parmananad Malpani, subsequently issued a sale certificate transferring the property to Malpani without the family’s knowledge or consent.Khatodara police have registered a case under sections 406, 420 and 114 of the IPC and are investigating the alleged irregularities.
