Gang used fake papers for loans from leading banks for high-end cars, mortgaged vehicles at much lesser value
Crime branch officers with some of the seized cars. Pic/Ashish Raje
A Gang of seven men has been busted for availing car loans from leading banks using fake documents and mortgaging the expensive vehicles with others. The police said the mastermind, Pradeep Maurya, had worked in the sales department of a private bank and is well versed with the process.
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“After securing the loan, they used to mortgage the car with third parties by taking half the cost of the vehicles,” said DCP Prakash Jadhav (Detection, Crime Branch).
The Unit 05 of the crime branch has seized 19 cars, including Audi, Mercedes, Mini Cooper and MG Hector, from cities like Bangalore, Lucknow and Indore. The gang was active for the past two years, said the police.
Maurya and his accomplices operated in three teams. They would coax loan seekers with a poor CIBIL score to first go for a car loan stressing that it would improve their chances of getting other loans. While they would help the customers avail the car loans, they would also forge their papers to create non-existent loan applicants, said Jadhav.
Armed with falsified documents, the gang would apply for loans and buy high-end cars. Meanwhile, another team would scout for people interested in possessing costly cars. The gang would offer the vehicles to such users on mortgage, said the officer. Cars worth R50 lakh were offered for R20 lakh, he said.
“Our investigation has revealed that the gang used to forge bank statements, I-T papers, PAN and Aadhaar cards. In this entire process, the role of bank employees are also being investigated,” said Jadhav.
Jagdish Sail, senior PI of Unit 05, said, “So far, the gang has been found to have got four cars through loans from ICICI Bank, four from Axis Bank, three cars from HDFC Bank and three cars from Punjab National Bank.”
To win the trust of the end user, the gang bought plain plastic cards from e-commerce portals and would print registration details of genuine customers to present it as a smart card.
19
The number of expensive cars that have been seized
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