His Rs 1-crore dream turns sour

VINAY KUMAR Sonkar had become quite good at procuring loans (worth several lakhs) for himself and others against fake documents from various banks. On Friday he decided to make his biggest move. He went to ICICI Bank and tried to hit the one crore mark in one go by encashing a couple of computer-scanned fake home loan cheques.

Alert bank staff expose fraud, accused nabbed

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VINAY KUMAR Sonkar had become quite good at procuring loans (worth several lakhs) for himself and others against fake documents from various banks. On Friday he decided to make his biggest move. He went to ICICI Bank and tried to hit the one crore mark in one go by encashing a couple of computer-scanned fake home loan cheques.

A suspicious bank staff, however, poured cold water on his plans. Soon his bluff was called. The Ghazipur police were informed and Sonkar, an intermediate pass-out, was arrested.

The cops recovered credit cards, cheque-books of different banks, letter-heads of various departments, several PAN cards, computer, scanner and dozens of CDs from Sonkar’s possession.

The fraud came to light when the ICICI bank received two cheques issued by the bank itself in the names of Bhagwandeen and Brijesh Kumar for deposit. The cheques were of Rs 37,96,577 and Rs 62,03,523, respectively. The cheques were even passed for clearing.

However, as an after thought the staff in the concerned section got suspicious. They scrutinised the cheques carefully and detected that the cheques were fake ones.

Sonkar confessed that he used to ‘help’ people in taking home loans from various banks. He used to attach fake documents required in procuring the loans. He had also helped a ticket inspector (TI) in railways Bhagwandeen of Khadra locality, Hasanganj in procuring Rs 3 lakh as home loan recently. Those seeking loans and unable to attach the required documents used to contact Sonkar.

Sonkar revealed that he had helped dozens of the people in procuring loans worth over Rs one crore so far from various banks. He said that he had procured Rs 78 lakh from the Hazratganj branch of the ICICI bank, Awas Sangh Ltd, Nishatganj branch of Punjab National Bank, Central Bank, UTI Bank and different branches of Bank of India.

Sonkar further revealed that an agent Amit Srivastava used to help him in procuring the loans.

The cops were searching for Srivastava and probing the role of some bank officials who might have helped Sonkar in procuring the loans.