Man booked for forging Aadhaar, PAN to finance 30 two-wheelers in Doon

A man has been booked for purchasing 30 two-wheelers on loan from five finance companies by using forged Aadhaar and PAN cards in Dehradun, police said on Saturday

A man has been booked for purchasing 30 two-wheelers on loan from five finance companies by using forged Aadhaar and PAN cards in Dehradun, police said on Saturday.

The fraud was unearthed when the finance companies realised that the EMIs were not being paid against these vehicles.(HT File)

Using these documents the accused, Kulbeer Rana, and his friends availed 12 vehicles from L&T Finance, two from Manappuram Finance Limited, three from Shriram Finance, five from Muthoot Finance, eight from HDFC Finance.

The accused and his friends took a house on rent in Subhash Nagar area of the city. They then used its address to prepare false Aadhaar and PAN cards and opened bank accounts in the Turner Road branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), police said.

After opening the accounts, they approached the finance companies to purchase two-wheelers by paying down payments between ₹10,000 and ₹12,000. After gaining possession of the vehicles, the gang used to sell them in far-off locations at higher prices and earn profits.

In-charge of Clement Town police station DS Negi said, “We have received a complaint against Kulbeer Rana that he and others have financed many vehicles using fake identity proofs. They used to finance two-wheelers from different companies.”

Speaking about the modus operandi, he said the accused first prepared Aadhaar cards using false local address. Once made, they opened bank accounts and then used them to approach finance companies to purchase vehicles by paying small down payments.

“They opened nearly 25 accounts in this manner. All the vehicles are two-wheelers and the accused are from Saharanpur,” he said.

The fraud was unearthed when the finance companies realised that the EMIs were not being paid against these vehicles. When the companies sent teams for ground verification, they found that Kulbeer and his friends no longer stay in the address mentioned in their Aadhaar cards.

The landlord reportedly told the teams that he lives elsewhere and had rented out the entire house to some boys.

Rajbir Kumar, branch manager OBC, Tunner Road, said, “We are yet to receive any communication from the police in this regard. If a person submits PAN and Aadhar card before us, we will open his/her account. How can we verify if the identity cards are fake?”

Asked if any spot verification is carried out before opening an account, he said, “We have a centralised mechanism and our accounts are opened from Bareilly.”

“We send a ‘thanks letter’ to the address of the customer. If it is received, it means the person is living there. Moreover, the finance companies are responsible for giving loans for the vehicles. We have nothing to do with it.”

Meanwhile, Bharat Singh Negi, manager Muthoot Finance, Dehradun, said, “I joined in January and the loans were sanctioned last year. The gang used to present each other as applicants and guarantors. I don’t know anything beyond this.”

He said his colleague Basant Kumar (who is also the complainant in the case) would be able to answer as “he knows the entire history of the case”.

When contacted, Basant Kumar initially said Negi is the “ideal person to speak on it” and later refused comment stating he is now out of station.

Meanwhile, police have registered a case following a complaint by Basant Kumar of Muthoot Finance in Clement Town police station under section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), among others, of the Indian Penal Code.

Police are also investigating the role of these finance companies and the bank for callousness in conducting spot verifications before sanctioning loans.

Cops, who are privy to the matter, said teams have been sent to different locations to trace the vehicles and some of them have already been recovered.

This is the second major case in less than one month in Dehradun where bank accounts were opened and operated using forged documents.

On February 24, Hindustan Times had reported a case wherein a man had was booked for impersonating his dead father and availing his pension for 37 years and availed of four loans against the pension.