UP: Kingpin among eight arrested for loan frauds worth over Rs 100 crore

Lucknow, Dec 5 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested eight members of an organised gang, including its kingpin, for allegedly using forged documents and fake profiles to secure home loans worth more than Rs 100 crore from multiple banks, officials said on Friday.

Police arrested the accused on December 4 in Gautam Buddh Nagar’s Surajpur area after an HDFC Bank staffer lodged a complaint.

The accused have been identified as – Ramkumar and Anuj Yadav from Ghaziabad, Nitin Jain and Ashok alias Deepak Jain from Delhi, Mohd Wasi from Jharkhand, Shamshad Alam of Bihar, Indrakumar Karmakar of Gurugram, and Tahir Hussain of Sambhal.

According to an official statement, 126 cheque books and passbooks, 170 ATM cards, 45 Aadhaar cards, 27 PAN cards, voter IDs, 26 mobile phones and three laptops besides multiple forged registries, agreements and identity documents were recovered from the accused.

Three vehicles were also impounded and around 220 bank accounts linked to the gang have been frozen, it said.

The gang’s kingpin, Ramkumar, a former loan executive with HDFC and Axis banks, masterminded the racket by creating forged Aadhaar cards, fake companies and fabricated financial profiles to obtain home and personal loans from various banks, the STF said.

He worked in connivance with builders, and the gang also targeted people working in Gulf countries, offering money to use their identities for loan applications.

Investigators said the gang operated more than 20 shell firms to siphon off funds and maintain anonymity. The accused are highly qualified with Ramkumar holding a degree in MBA, while Mohammad Wasi is an MBA, LLB and Company Secretary.

Wasi previously worked with Accenture in legal and risk roles, police said. Others too operated using fake identities while leading high-profile lifestyles, STF added.

A case has been registered at Surajpur police station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology (IT) Act, and further investigation is underway, officials said. PTI CDN SMV OZ OZ