E-Paper
Two-wheeler scam busted, seven arrested
The scam came to light when one of the victims received a message from IDFC bank saying that his loan application for a two-wheeler loan has been approved
The Sahakarnagar police arrested seven persons and busted a major two-wheeler loan scam in the city on Tuesday.
The accused prepared bogus documents and availed loans in the name of unsuspecting persons and forced the victims to pay the Equated Monthly Instalments (EMIs).
The police have recovered 28 two-wheelers from their possession including other seizures totally estimated to be worth Rs 29.93 lakh from their possession.
The scam came to light when one of the victims identified as Pritesh Subhash Shinde received a message from IDFC bank saying that his loan application for a two-wheeler loan has been approved. Since he had not opted for any loan, he went to the spot from where he received the message and found that it was a two-wheeler showroom.
He checked with the showroom management and found bogus documents like Aadhaar card, Pan card, voter’s card and other personal documents in his name required for obtaining loan filed at the showroom.
He immediately rushed to the Sahakarnagar police station and the police officials along with the victim came to the showroom for further inquiries.
The person who had put the file for loan purpose had arrived by the time the police and the victim were inquiring with the showroom staff. Initially the bank agent said that his name was Pritesh Shinde when grilled by the police but later revealed that his name was Kiran Shashikant Pednekar (34), a resident of Naigaon Vasai. He was immediately taken into custody and during interrogation he revealed the names of the other accused who were involved in the scam.
The other six arrested have been identified as Anil Namdeorao Navthale (31), a resident of Balapur Akola, Pravin Vijay Khadakban (39), a resident of Naigaon, Devendra Kumar Keshav Manjhi (50), a resident of Palghar and Suresh Harishchandra More ( 41 ), a resident Ghodbunder in Thane and Pankaj Rajendra Prasad Singh ( 30), a resident of Vapi in Gujarat.
Sahakarnagar senior police inspector Arun Waikar said, “It is a major scam and investigations have led to the arrest of seven persons and more will follow. They prepared forged documents in names of different persons, obtained loans and used the two-wheelers and money for their own benefit which is a major crime.”
