Woman declared PO in fraud cases arrested

Panchkula, October 30

A woman, who was declared a proclaimed offender by a court in gold and car loan frauds worth several lakhs, was arrested by the Panchkula police on Thursday evening.

The woman has been identified as Nirmala Devi, a resident of Baddi in Solan district, Himachal Pradesh.

The court had declared her a proclaimed offender after registering a case under Section 174-A of the IPC on September 1, 2020.

The accused, Nirmala, along with Vijay Kumari, had taken a loan of Rs9 lakh each from the Marranwala branch of the State Bank of Patiala, now State Bank of India, after depositing 1 kg of gold at the rate of 10.70 per cent interest payable in 12 monthly instalment of Rs83,000 each. However, after taking the loan, the accused did not pay a single penny to the bank.

After several visits and numerous requests, neither the borrowers nor the guarantor repaid the loan amount. Before auctioning the gold, the bank got its purity checked from a goldsmith, who found it to be fake.

The Pinjore police had registered cases against the accused under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC on June 13, 2018.

In another case of fraud, Nirmala Devi and Vijay Kumari took a loan of Rs10 lakh and submitted the registration certificate (RC) of a car registered in Himachal Pradesh. While reviewing the documents, it came to fore that the RC submitted to the bank by the accused and the copy of the RC received from the Transport Department, Himachal Pradesh, were registered in different names.

A case under Sections 406, 420, 120-B, 468, 471 and 201 of the IPC was registered on April 1, 2019. — TNS