NOIDA: A gang was dismantled for colluding with builders to withdraw Rs 100 crore from banks through fraudulent loans. Eight members were arrested in connection with the scheme.
Rajkumar Mishra, the additional superintendent of police at Noida STF, reported that the arrests stemmed from a tip-off by an HDFC Bank official who detected unusual loan activities. Investigations revealed that the gang forged property documents and identities to obtain home and personal loans from various banks. These fabricated identities were used to purchase property, with the funds laundered through a network of shell companies and accounts.
The gang’s tactics were intricate yet effective. Ramkumar, a former loan executive at HDFC and Axis Bank, confessed to collaborating with builders across Noida, Lucknow, Varanasi, Haridwar, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Gurgaon to fabricate identities and set up companies using counterfeit Aadhaar cards, even appointing fictitious directors.
With the assistance of complicit bank employees, they opened accounts for these fictional individuals and deposited fake salaries to create believable financial histories. Loans were then secured under these names, with the funds split among gang members and their builder partners.
Other gang members, including Mohd Wasi and Shamshad Alam, targeted migrant workers from Bihar employed in Gulf countries, luring them with cash incentives. Often, they used these workers’ identities without their consent to acquire loans and properties. In a notable case, the identity of a deceased woman, Ratna Vasudeva, was used to transfer her Delhi property to an associate, Sanaullah Ansari, resulting in a loan of nearly Rs 5 crore.
The investigation further uncovered that members like Ashok Kumar, Nitin Jain, and Indrakumar Karmakar set up over 20 shell companies to launder ill-gotten gains. Due to the anonymity of the individuals behind the fake profiles, banks struggled to recover the loans and sought police assistance.
The accused possessed a myriad of professional skills; for instance, Ramkumar has an MBA, while Wasi is a qualified company secretary with degrees in law and business administration and experience in legal and risk management. Their technical prowess and the use of counterfeit identities allowed them to avoid detection for years, according to police.
The police have frozen more than 220 bank accounts linked to the gang. A case has been registered at Surajpur police station under charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, and relevant provisions of the IT Act.
“An ongoing investigation aims to uncover the full extent of the fraud and recover the siphoned funds,” a police official stated.
