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Eight arrested for duping banks of ₹23cr after showing fake company and staff
The fake IDs were used by the suspects as proof of employees to the bank and created their salary accounts in the bank, officials said
Eight people were arrested on Monday from Jewar toll plaza in Gautam Budh Nagar for allegedly setting up fake companies, showing fake employees and duping banks of ₹23 crore in Noida, officials said on Tuesday. The police recovered 93 Aadhaar cards, 518 cheque books, 327 ATM cards, 278 PAN cards and 187 mobile phones from the suspects.
According to Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police-1, Noida, a bank employee submitted a complaint at Noida’s Phase-1 police station regarding the crime.
“On May 12, Prashant Khurana, deputy vice president, credit intelligence and control at HDFC Bank, submitted a complaint alleging that six companies registered in Noida have taken loan from the bank and are not repaying it. He said that the bank officials suspected that the companies were fake,” said Verma.
On Khurana’s complaint, an investigation was started, and it was found that all six companies were registered on fraudulent identity cards. An FIR was registered against the companies for causing financial loss to the bank by making fake documents for the purpose of illegally acquiring money and fraudulently creating IDs, under sections of cheating, fraud and forgery of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), said officials.
“Using electronic surveillance and policing, the eight suspects were arrested from Jewar toll plaza on Monday. Upon interrogation, they revealed that they were running the nexus from a rented flat in Noida Sector 119,” said Verma.
The suspects have been identified as Anurag Chatkara, Aman Sharma, Danish Chhibber, Wasim Ahmed, Mohsin, Jeetu alias Jitendra, Ravikant Mishra and Tanuj Sharma — all residents of NCR.
Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida, informed that the suspects had made fake Aadhaar cards by taking biometrics of homeless people and registering their own mobile numbers for verification. “The suspects made Aadhaar cards on fake names and put their own phone numbers for verification. Using these fake Aadhaar cards, they also made fake PAN cards. The suspects created a fake company using these documents and registered it with Registrar of Companies. Thereafter, they opened salary accounts in various banks under the company’s name,” said the DCP.
He added that the fake IDs were used as proof of employees to the bank and created their salary accounts in the bank.
“In the first six months, the suspects used to put money in the salary accounts and later withdrew the same amount from ATMs. Every month, they would put the same amount in these salary accounts to show salary disbursal. After six months, such “account holders” would become suitable for loans. After applying for loans, the suspects would finance cars, mobile phones and other assets,” said the officer, adding that the suspects began operations around August 2020.
He said the suspects never repaid the loan amount to the bank. “Since the names and addresses of the account holders are fake, the bank was unable to trace the suspects. GHCL, one of the companies opened by the suspects, had opened the employee accounts in EPFO and deposited money in the EPFO account from time to time to give legitimacy to the company. The banks also did not have any suspicion over disbursal of the loan,” said the DCP.
ACP Verma informed that the investigation — conducted jointly by Gautam Budh Nagar police and the Noida unit of the special task force — revealed that the suspects had so far taken loans worth ₹23 crore from different banks in Noida. “They had taken ₹10 crore loan from the complainant bank and ₹13 crore from other banks. We have also found ₹80 lakh in the bank accounts of the suspect and have frozen that amount,” said Verma, adding that the suspects were arrested and sent to judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate.
