Bringing a three-decade-old cooperative housing loan fraud investigation closer to trial, the State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) on Friday filed a 15,000-page chargesheet before the Court of the Special Judge, Prevention of Corruption Act, Raipur, against three accused in an alleged Government-backed housing loan scam in which the original fraud of Rs 1.86 crore has grown into a Rs 104-crore bad debt, including accumulated interest. The chargesheet has been filed in Crime No 19/2000 under Sections 120-B, 406, 409, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code along with Sections 13(1)(c) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Thavardas Madhavani, then President of Adhunik Grih Nirman Sahakari Samiti Maryadit, Raipur; Basant Kumar Sahu, then Housing Supervisor of the Cooperative Housing Federation, Raipur; and Pradeep Kumar Nikhra, then Manager of the Cooperative Housing Federation, Bhopal. According to the investigation, between 1995 and 1998, housing loans of Rs 1 lakh each were sanctioned in the names of 186 members of the cooperative society under a Government housing scheme for economically weaker beneficiaries, involving a total disbursement of Rs 1.86 crore.

 

Physical verification during the investigation allegedly found neither houses constructed at the locations mentioned in the loan records nor several of the borrowers at the recorded addresses. Investigators alleged that forged documents, fabricated utilisation certificates and false stage-wise construction completion certificates were used to fraudulently obtain loan sanctions and secure release of funds. SEOIACB further alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy, abused their official positions and processed forged loan proposals through the Cooperative Housing Federation’s regional office in Raipur to its headquarters in Bhopal, enabling fraudulent disbursal of the loans. The investigation claims that the funds were misappropriated instead of being utilised for construction of houses. The agency said the outstanding principal together with accumulated interest had risen to approximately Rs 104 crore as on December 31, 2025, and now stands recorded as a bad loan in the books of the State Cooperative Housing Federation. SEOIACB added that investigations in other long-pending legacy corruption cases are also being completed on priority and prosecuted on the basis of available evidence.