Online tutor held for taking loan of ₹1.5 cr in students’ name
The accused had availed the loan on the pretext of getting study resources such as books and laptops for his 116 students and had submitted their supporting documents for this, said the police. However, the students had no idea that loans had been taken in their names and claimed that they had not received any of the study resources mentioned.
MUMBAI: The chairman of a Ranchi-based online tutoring service has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a city-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) of ₹1.5 crore by taking a loan in the name of students, according to MIDC police.
The accused had availed the loan on the pretext of getting study resources such as books and laptops for his 116 students and had submitted their supporting documents for this, said the police. However, the students had no idea that loans had been taken in their names and claimed that they had not received any of the study resources mentioned.
During investigation, the police learnt that this was not the only such case against Randheer Kumar, the chairman of Basic Fast Pvt Ltd, Ranchi. Seven other cases had been registered against him in cities like New Delhi, Guna and Dehradun. The highest amount of loan he had taken was in Kerala — ₹2 crore.
“When we went looking for him, we learnt that he was already in the custody of police in Madhya Pradesh and then Chhattisgarh police. His custody was handed over to us for one month earlier this week,” said Sunil Gaikwad, investigating officer and police sub inspector.
The fraud came to light in November last year when an executive of Eduvanz Finance Ltd approached the police to report Kumar, who had taken loans totalling ₹1.53 crore in April 2021.
When recovery agents of the company called the students to remind them about the instalments for repayment of the loans, the students said they had no idea about the loans being taken in their names.
“According to the complaint, the students told the executives that they had not received any money, study material or laptops. However, they said that the tutorial service had promised them a scholarship, which they were never given,” said Satish Gaikwad, senior inspector, MIDC police.
“The same had been conveyed to the NBFC, which is why it didn’t seem out of place when they were asked to forward the total amount of the loans into the account of Basic Fast,” added Satish.
He said that every student had been shown to have received ₹1.38 lakh, which accounted for the fees and the price of a laptop.
Police said that the accused had even told the finance company that he will take the responsibility of loan instalments missed by any of the students, which had cemented their trust in him.
When the students told the recovery agents that they didn’t know anything about the loans, the company representatives got in touch with Kumar, who assured them that after some time, he would be paying the instalments in accordance with the contract he had signed with them.
Based on the complaint received in November 2022, the MIIDC police had booked Kumar and his associates under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust with respect to property) and 420 (fraud) of the Indian Penal Code.