Seven held for stealing ID papers and using them to purchase expensive gadgets

The fraud was reported to the police on October 11 after a Faridabad resident was denied a loan by a finance firm saying his credit score was poor since he has not paid EMIs on an iPhone that he bought in March 2022. Instalments amounting to ₹49,000 were still pending, said police

The Faridabad police has arrested seven people from Delhi-NCR and Bihar over the past three days for allegedly take loans to purchase consumer durables on EMIs by submitting documents submitted by customers to SIM card dealers and Photostat shops, officers involved in the probe said.

Five of the suspects in police custody on Wednesday. (Parveen Kumar/ HT)

Police said they are preparing a list of Photostat shops and SIM card dealers who were allegedly involved in providing the documents to the gang members.

The fraud was reported to the police on October 11 after a Faridabad resident was denied a loan by a finance firm saying his credit score was poor since he has not paid EMIs on an iPhone that he bought in March 2022. Instalments amounting to ₹49,000 were still pending, said police.

Investigators said Hemant Kumar (35), a resident of Sector 58 in Ballabhgarh, told the police that he never bought a phone or applied for a loan.

Basant Kumar, station house officer (SHO) of Cybercrime police station, Faridabad, said they registered a case of cheating and fraud against unidentified suspects and started conducting technical surveillance based on the documents and numbers that were submitted at the mobile store. “We questioned the executives of the electronics stores and scanned the Aadhaar card and PAN card submitted to buy the phone. We took out the call detail records and traced gang members and arrested them from Bihar, Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Noida,” he said.

The probe into the case showed that the gang was involved in at least 300 similar cases of fraud, Kumar said. He added that some of the gang members worked at common service centres of finance firms and as finance executives at consumer appliances showrooms. They would take copies of original documents submitted by people while buying SIM cards as well as those brought to Photostat shops for making copies, and use them to buy appliances on EMIs and apply for loans.

Kumar said the probe revealed that the gang members had bought expensive mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, LED TVs, laptops, home theatres, ACs , scooters and motorcycles using the purloined documents. Later, they sold the items in the grey market to make a profit.

The suspects were identified as Vineet Kumar alias Nitin , Sahil Singh, Tikam, Deepak, Abid, Mukesh and Harmel Singh alias Vicky Sardar.

Sube Singh, spokesperson of Faridabad police, said Vineet Kumar is a resident of Bihar, while Mukesh, Abid, Tikam and Harmel are residents of Ghaziabad; Deepak and Sahil are from Delhi.

“The suspects have revealed that they had been preparing fake documents to cheat banks and finance companies by availing of finance for mobile phones and other electronic items on the basis of these documents without the knowledge of the customers. The accused have been arrested from Delhi, Ghaziabad and Bihar,” he said.

Singh said that Vineet was the mastermind and used to collect Aadhaar and PAN card data to pass on to Mukesh and Harmel Singh. Tikam Singh used to prepare the file for finance and send people to different stores -- including one in Delhi’s Preet Vihar where Sahil and Deepak used to work -- with the fake ID papers.

Police have seized ₹15,000 cash, a computer, printer, three mobile phones and 14 SIM cards from the possession of the suspects. All the suspects have been remanded in judicial custody, Kumar said.

Police said they are conducting investigations and more complaints of a similar nature are expected from other areas. The teams are mapping the areas and will prepare a data of products sold by the suspects based on which the shops, showrooms and agencies will be informed.