Lucknow, Dec 5 The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has cracked a major inter-state bank loan fraud running into more than Rs 100 crore, and arrested eight members of a high-profile gang that used forged documents and fake identities to secure loans from multiple banks, officials said on Friday.
The STF’s Gautam Buddh Nagar field unit carried out the operation on Thursday, arresting kingpin Ramkumar — a former bank loan executive — along with Nitin Jain, Mohd Wasi, Shamshad Alam, Indra Kumar Karmakar, Anuj Yadav, Tahir Hussain, and Ashok alias Deepak Jain.
A large haul of forged Aadhaar and PAN cards, bank passbooks, cheque books, debit cards, laptops, mobile phones and three cars was recovered.
Investigations began after an HDFC Bank official flagged suspicious loan applications. Under the supervision of ASP Rajkumar Mishra and DSP Navendu Kumar, Inspector Sachin Kumar’s team tracked the gang’s activities and laid a trap.
Interrogation revealed that the gang forged Aadhaar cards to create fictitious identities. Using these, they registered shell companies, opened bank accounts and generated fake salary slips to build strong financial profiles. Home, personal and business loans were then secured from different banks, often in collusion with builders and certain bank employees.
In many cases, loans were obtained against flats and houses using fabricated documents. Once funds were disbursed, the accused vanished, leaving banks with massive losses.
The STF has so far recovered 126 passbooks/cheque books, 170 debit cards, 45 Aadhaar cards, 27 PAN cards, 15 fake ID cards, five voter IDs, 26 mobile phones, three laptops, and three cars.
Gang members Mohd Wasi and Shamshad allegedly targeted individuals from Bihar and Jharkhand working in Gulf countries, misusing their identities to obtain loans and purchase properties.
The racket also included a major fraud involving the property of deceased Delhi resident Ratna Vasudeva, against which a loan of Rs 4.8 crore was fraudulently availed using a woman named Shahida Ahmed.
Another member, Anil Sharma, had earlier been jailed in a Rs 1.25-crore fraud case.
The STF found that more than 20 shell companies were used for laundering money, and bank funds were siphoned off through multiple accounts.
So far, around 220 bank accounts linked to the gang have been frozen.
Those arrested are highly educated professionals — MBAs, law graduates and even a company secretary. One of them, Mohd Wasi, previously worked as a Legal and Risk Manager at Accenture.
The gang’s operations spanned Noida, Lucknow, Varanasi, Haridwar, Chandigarh, Delhi and Gurugram.
STF officials have also uncovered the complicity of several builders and some bank staff. A case has been lodged at Surajpur Police Station, Gautam Buddh Nagar, under Sections 319(2), 318(4), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66D of the IT Act.
Officials say the network is extensive, and more arrests, including “bigger names,” are expected as the investigation expands.
(Auto generated news from IANS Feed. This has not been edited by enewstime desk)
