ED Raids 12 Locations In Pune In ₹19.38-Crore SBI Luxury Car Loan Fraud Case; High-End Vehicles, Documents Seized

Mumbai, Nov 26: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted coordinated search operations at 12 residential and commercial premises in Pune between Tuesday and Wednesday, November 26, in connection with a ₹19.38-crore luxury car loan fraud at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) University Road branch. The searches, carried out from Tuesday through Wednesday, November 26, were executed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the agency said on Wednesday.

According to the ED, the probe has uncovered a well-structured fraud network involving car dealers, borrowers, an auto loan agent, and officials of the SBI branch. Borrowers allegedly used forged documents to secure high-value car loans, which were then used to purchase luxury vehicles, including BMW, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Land Rover models. These loans, officials said, were processed and approved without mandatory verification, enabling the accused to obtain vehicles far beyond their genuine eligibility.

During the search operations, the agency recovered incriminating documents and identified multiple immovable properties acquired by the borrowers. The ED also seized several high-end luxury cars, allegedly purchased using forged documents and proceeds of the fraudulent loan money. These seizures were executed under Section 17 of the PMLA, 2002.

The ED’s action stemmed from a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the CBI Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Pune, and the Shivajinagar Police Station under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. As per the FIR, Amar Kulkarni, then Chief Manager of SBI’s University Road branch between 2017 and 2019, allegedly abused his official position to conspire with Aditya Sethia, an SBI Auto Loan Counsellor with SBI, along with car dealers and borrowers, to bypass verification protocols and push high-value luxury vehicle loans.

Investigators said Kulkarni “improperly and dishonestly” processed and recommended loan proposals based on forged documents and fabricated KYC documents, in violation of SBI’s lending norms. In several cases, luxury car quotations were allegedly inflated by substantial margins to increase the loan amount and bypass eligibility norms. In certain cases, the quotations were inflated by over ₹61 lakh above the actual dealer invoice to artificially enhance loan eligibility and secure higher disbursements.

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The fraud was ultimately uncovered during SBI’s internal scrutiny. The bank initiated a detailed review of car loan files under a specific Customer Identification Identifier (CII) after one borrower’s account was flagged for suspected fraud. Subsequent checks revealed glaring discrepancies, including mismatched Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) and verification reports. Third-party agencies later confirmed that several verification reports attributed to them were fake and never issued. These findings prompted SBI to escalate the matter, leading to the registration of the FIR in January 2023, which triggered the ED’s money-laundering probe and the subsequent search operations.

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