

DEHRADUN: In what could be Uttarakhand’s biggest auto loan fraud to date, sleuths of Special Task Force have busted a gang of frauds who cheated 16 branches of 11 leading banks to the tune of crores and bought around 400 cars, including SUVs and luxury ones, on loans procured on forged documents . They never paid back these loans and even threatened bank officials, saying they’d be framed too for approving fake loans if the matter was reported to authorities.

The magnitude of the crime is such that the STF , which claims to have cracked the case with the arrest of three persons, said it would take them some time to gather details of the vehicles the gang purchased and calculate the total amount of loan they took from 16 banks.

“We are in process of compiling all the details. Highly-educated and white-collar people are involved in this gang. We are probing the matter deeper and more arrests are likely soon,” STF senior superintendent of police Sadanand Date told TOI.

The STF has not ruled out the possibility of involvement of some of the bank staff in the racket. “We will quiz the bank staff as well. It seems unlikely that so many cases of such frauds could be committed in the same bank without insiders’ involvement,” he claimed.

On Wednesday, STF arrested three persons identified as Chirag Ahmed, Nawab Ahmed and Kurban Ahmed. According to the three arrested, there are about 12 members in the gang who duped the banks to the tune of Rs 12-15 crore to purchase 375-400 cars.

The modus operandi of the gang was to open an account in a bank. Thereafter, the account holders developed good rapport with the bank staff. “Then the account holder used to apply for a car loan on genuine papers,” Date said. However, the fraud started with a “fake” quotation from the car agency. “The quotation used to be fake and a gang member’s name and mobile number was mentioned in the column for the details of sales executive of the car agency,” the police official said, adding that once the bank staff was convinced, a demand draft used to be issued in the name of the agency.

Meanwhile, the other members of the gang used to get another account opened in the name of the agency in another bank. The demand draft used to be deposited in this account and the entire amount used to be withdrawn. “Even the registration and insurance papers furnished to the bank by the gang members were fake. In some cases, it was found that they had submitted vehicles papers of a scooter for the purchase of SUVs and luxury cars ,” Date said.

