HT Correspondent
MARGHERITA, Dec 20: A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against the officials of Bandhan Bank in Ledo and a woman for allegedly being involved in a funds embezzlement case at the Margherita police station.
The FIR was filed by the All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) Margherita branch committee following a protest over the issue.
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This development comes after a woman named Rinku Gogoi reportedly misled over a hundred women from Amritgaon in Ledo with a false promise of providing loans in October.
According to sources, Gogoi secured loans of Rs 70,000 each in the names of women from the Adivasi Tea Tribe Community but failed to hand over the money to them.
“Instead, Rinku Gogoi allegedly embezzled the funds, as on Wednesday, only Rs 38,000 was credited to the accounts of the affected women,” the sources added.
Following this, Bandhan Bank Ledo branch manager Abhijit Dutta reportedly called some of the women to the bank and asked them to withdraw the funds and transfer the amount to Gogoi.
This incident of Manager asking women to transfer fund to Gogoi led to speculation about a potential nexus between Rinku Gogoi and the bank’s authorities.
The situation escalated when members of the All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) Margherita branch committee staged a protest, surrounding the bank and demanding answers.
“On Thursday, we lodged an FIR at Margherita police station against both Rinku Gogoi and employees of Bandhan Bank Ledo branch, and we hope that all arrested persons will receive stringent punishment under the law,” said Pranjal Baraik, joint publicity secretary of the ATTSA central executive committee.
In connection with this case, four persons have been arrested by Margherita police. They have been identified as Ajay Das, Abhijit Dutta, Subhomoy Saha (three employees of Bandhan Bank Ledo branch), and Rinku Gogoi.
A case has also been registered at Margherita police station under case number 173/2024, U/S 61(2)/318/316(2)/316(4)/140(3)/142/127(2) BNS.
On Friday, they were presented to the Margherita sub-divisional court and later sent to Tinsukia district jail.
Local authorities have been informed, and further investigation is underway to determine the extent of the alleged fraud and any involvement of bank personnel.
Meanwhile, Bandhan Bank authorities in Margherita have not commented on the issue.
