The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police arrested them on Friday. (Representational Image)TWO BANK loan agents allegedly cheated 10 banks of Rs 2 crore by procuring loans using forged documents, after they found loopholes in the procedure. The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police arrested them on Friday.
The duo would rent houses in the eastern suburbs, used forged documents to apply for personal and home loans, pay initial instalments before going missing, police said, adding that when the bank tried contacting them for recovery, they would find that the details provided by the accused were incorrect.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Shahaji Umap said over the past few months, there were several cases where banks were cheated by fraudsters who secured loans using forged documents. The matter was handed over to the property cell of the Crime Branch. Assistant Inspector Laxmikant Salunke, who began the investigation, found that 10 banks, where similar frauds took place, were cheated by the same people.
According to police, while verifying the documents, it came to light that while the names and addresses kept changing, the photographs submitted were the same. Police identified the accused as Sushant Ahire (29), a Mulund resident, and Chetan Kawa (36), a Mira Road resident, who would rent houses in the eastern suburbs and prepare forged documents such as Aadhaar card and salary slips, using which they would open accounts in the banks.
In the initial months, they would transfer Rs 60,000 and above to the bank account to show they earn a good salary and maintain a good credit rating,” an officer said.
Police said after some months, using these details they would approach banks for home loan or personal loan. “For some months, they would stay at a rented place so that the verification process went by smoothly,” Salunke said, adding that after paying four to five instalments on time, they would start to default.
Police said when banks would go to the address provided by them, they would find that they no longer resided there and it would later turn out that all the documents were forged. “They had managed to get 17 loan applications approved across the city,” Salunke said.
