Mumbai: The LT Marg police have registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against 12 people for allegedly duping a private bank to the tune of Rs 1.37 crore by securing vehicle loans through submission of bogus documents. The accused persons had also created bogus email ID, of the car dealer to secure loans, police said.
According to the police, the complainant in the case is a regional operations manager of the bank. As per the complainant, those who want to secure vehicle loan from the bank have to submit a copy of residence proof, Aadhaar card, PAN card, business/employment documents, Income Tax returns of three years, bank statement and dealer's quotation.
When a customer applies for the loan, the bank does verification of the documents submitted by the customer. After completing the field verification, the bank then made enquiries as to how much amount has been paid by the customer to the car dealer and after a satisfactory verification process, the bank deposits the loan amount in the dealer's bank account. "While scrutinising some of the loan documents of the borrowers of the Girgaum Branch, in January 2021, the complainant realised that between September and December 2020, documents provided by nine borrowers to the bank were bogus. The said nine suspicious loans were then enquired by the Risk Containment Unit (RCU) of the bank," said a police officer.
The enquiry conducted by the RCU revealed that all the nine borrowers had given quotations of the same car dealer to the bank in order to secure loans. The Probe also revealed that the accused borrowers and their accomplices had prepared a bogus email ID of the car dealer. As per the bank, a bogus account in the name of the car dealer company was opened in a bank at Mira Road and the sanctioned loan amount was disbursed in the said account. The bank in their enquiry has identified at least 12 people, including some bank officials to be allegedly involved in the said racket and have lodged a police complaint against them.
The police have registered a case under sections 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
