The Chembur police have booked several persons including employees of a private bank for allegedly forging documents of a Thane-based man named Ritesh Patil, to create a bank account, which was further linked to a company called Magic Royal Bullion Private Limited (MRBPL) – where Patil was shown as a director – all of which became known to Patil only when he was summoned by the Department of Goods and Service Tax (GST).
Details of scam
Patil, a resident of Kopari in Thane, currently works with the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) at its encroachment department on a contract basis. However, back in 2022, he was an unemployed man. That year, in January he stumbled upon an advertisement near Thane railway station which was about providing job opportunities at banks for the position of clerk. Patil called up and a man named Vaibhav spoke to him.
They met in Thane, where Patil provided him with his photographs, biodata, and copies of his Aadhar and PAN Card. Vaibhav later told him that he would need a bank account for transferring salaries, and asked to make one at the Punjab and Sind bank, of the Masjid Bunder branch. He did as asked hoping to get a job, but that didn’t work out.
Vaibhav one day called Patil via video call and asked him to give a brief description about himself, and also show his Aadhar and PAN card pointing towards the camera. Vaibhav said it was for his job purpose, hence Patil did as asked. In April 2022, Vaibhav asked Patil to come to Navi Mumbai, at a bank named Equitas Small Finance located in Vashi. He made him create a bank account, and also deposit an amount. While they split, Vaibhav took out a blank cheque with Patil’s sign saying it was for a salary transaction.
“There was no response from him for the next two months, and when I managed to connect with him, he said he was visiting his hometown. I realized something was off about the situation, so I revisited both the banks of Masjid Bunder and Vashi and got the accounts closed forever,” said Patil in his statement.
Patil gets to know of MRBPL after GST Dept call him
In February 2023, Patil received a notice to his address from the Department of GST. “It was a summon notice that said I, director of Magic Royal Bullion Private Limited (MRBPL), need to be at the GST Bhavan, Mazgaon for enquiries as part of an ongoing investigation. When I reached there, I understood that Vaibhav made a bank account at a private bank (Chembur branch) which is linked to the MRBPL Company which has made transactions of crores of money, illegally,” said Patil, who was baffled about how he got involved in all of these. He added that officials from GST conducted a search at his house in Thane, looking for proof of his involvement with the company, but they found none.
Patil went to the Chembur’s bank to inquire, and he found that an account by his name and documents were made in April 2022, immediately after Vaibhav took him to the Vashi-based bank and took Patil's security documents along with a blank cheque with his signature.
“I asked for all details submitted to the Chembur’s bank and none of it matched the real one. For example, the contact number was not mine, the house address was not mine, and the KYC was also forged. I realized the bank employees were involved in the fraud, who along with Vaibhav did all of it to make illegal money using my name,” said Patil.
According to the Chembur police, the fraudsters made bogus certificates to get registered as a company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, with Patil and another man named Subhash Kumar Tailor. MRBPL is registered as a company engaged in the trading industry. Between 2021 to 2023, the company made crores worth of transactions – in the FIR, police mentioned the amount Rs. 23,99,19,500.
Along with the man supposedly named Vaibhav, four unknown persons have been booked by the police, along with the employees of the Chembur-based bank – who are slapped with charges including 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal), and 474 (having possession of document knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code.
