The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police has arrested a suspended bank employee on charges of misappropriating public funds amounting to Rs 5.21 crore, according to a senior police official on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Prashanta Kumar Mallick, was employed as a Senior Associate-cum-Cash In-charge and served as a gold appraiser at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) Balichandrapur branch in the Jagatsinghpur district.
The EOW apprehended Mallick in connection with a case registered on February 10, 2026, which was initiated following a complaint lodged by Peeyus Ranjan Swain, the SBI Regional Manager at Jagatsinghpur.
In the complaint, Swain alleged that between October 2024 and July 2025, Mallick, while serving as a gold appraiser, misappropriated Rs 5,21,42,000 by sanctioning and disbursing 105 gold loans without obtaining proper documentation or physical gold ornaments.
Mallick’s professional duties included appraising and verifying gold ornaments with the assistance of a goldsmith, ensuring loan eligibility and compliance, recommending loans for sanction, and maintaining joint custody of both loan documents and pledged ornaments alongside the Service Manager.
During the investigation, police discovered that during a routine inspection conducted in 2025 by Manorama Rout, the SBI Chief Manager at Balasore, Mallick failed to produce the necessary files concerning the gold loans. He subsequently absconded from the branch without providing any intimation to his superiors.
“Suspecting foul play, Rout conducted an immediate spot audit of gold loan accounts, followed by a detailed internal investigation, and found that accused Mallick had fraudulently processed 105 gold loan accounts, of which 31 involved pledging spurious or fake gold ornaments, while 74 were sanctioned without any gold ornaments,” the EOW official noted.
The senior official further stated that several critical loan documents, including goldsmith valuation reports, were found to be missing, and that borrower signatures had been forged.
The investigation also revealed that after sanctioning and disbursing the fraudulent loans, Mallick deliberately diverted the funds into his personal accounts and other accounts under his control to misappropriate the money.
Following the investigation, the EOW sleuths arrested the absconding accused Mallick from Bhubaneswar on April 21. He was later on Wednesday produced before the court, which sent him to judicial custody.
