Four couples arrested for cheating 13 banks of over ₹3 cr; they used forged ID papers to procure credit cards, loans

Four couples, three of them of the same family, were arrested for allegedly duping 13 banks of over ₹3 crore by opening accounts using forged papers, procuring credit and debits cards, and then using them for shopping and obtaining loans, police said Saturday.

Four couples, three of them of the same family, were arrested for allegedly duping 13 banks of over ₹3 crore by opening accounts using forged papers, procuring credit and debits cards, and then using them for shopping and obtaining loans, police said Saturday.

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A total of 63 credit and debit cards and 83 cheque books of different banks, all obtained fraudulently, jewellery items, ₹14.67 lakh in cash, and 15 cellphones were seized from the eight arrested persons by teams of the economic offences wing (EOW). Two card swipe machines, 31 PAN cards, 18 Aadhaar cards, and 30 voter ID cards, all prepared using forged documents, were also recovered from them, joint commissioner of police (EOW) OP Mishra said.

“We are now looking for the suspects who prepared the fake identification documents. One of the arrested persons said he procured the fake IDs from two persons – Umesh and Ravi Sachdeva. Our teams are looking for the duo and other persons involved in the racket,” Mishra said.

Joint CP Mishra said a private bank, after an internal audit, had filed a complaint with the EOW regarding 36 customers who had cheated the bank by opening saving accounts in different names and addresses, using forged papers, and procuring credit and debit cards.

“The suspects used the cards for obtaining loans and shopping; they never paid the money back. During subsequent verification, the bank found that the suspects were missing from the addresses provided on the ID documents,” the joint CP said.

A case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy was registered and investigation was taken up by multiple teams. During the probe, it emerged that the same set of persons used different names, IDs and addresses to open the accounts.

“While preparing the IDs, the male suspects used to change their physical appearances -- they sported different styles of beard and moustaches in the photographs. The women also used a software to alter their facial features,” Mishra said.

Police said the suspects were arrested from their homes in Rani Bagh between Thursday and Friday, after their identities were established by technical surveillance, human intelligence and scrutiny of forged documents and IDs that they had submitted with the bank.

Explaining the modus operandi, an investigator said after opening the accounts and procuring credit or debit cards, the suspects immediately exhausted the credit limits on these cards by buying jewellery and other expensive items.

“They had also procured two swipe machines in the name of their bogus business ventures. They further misrepresented to the banks that credit cards were swiped but payment couldn’t be carried out. Thus they got the provisional payments from the banks credited to their accounts. After that, they also obtained loans on these credit cards and then absconded,” said the investigator, who did not want to be named.

The joint CP said Manish is the mastermind of the racket. His father Kawal Raj owned a small electric switch manufacturing factory in Rani Bagh and both were directors of the company. “In 2012-13, they suffered huge losses in the business, after which Manish involved himself and his family in cheating banks,” Mishra said, adding that the suspects have disclosed that nearly ₹50 lakh of the money they fraudulently obtained is lying in different bank accounts.