A group of men, who took automobile loans against five cars using
fake documents from a private bank, allegedly cheated the bank by neither repaying
the loan nor returning the vehicles.
Five persons were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday for allegedly duping the bank out of ₹76.6 lakh, police said. The arrests were made based on the complaint of a senior bank official of the Shakespeare Sarani branch of the bank.
The cops identified the five accused persons as Ashikul Seikh, Somenath Ghosh, Avijit Pal, Saifulla Seikh and Shankar Gupta.
“Each of them have separate roles. They duped the bank out of ₹76.6 lakh by taking five automobile loans,” said joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police, Rupesh Kumar.
The police said the accused persons obtained automobile loans for five vehicles,
including Hyundai Creta and Hyundai Alcazar by producing fake bank statements
and forged IT return documents.
“But later they disposed of the vehicles causing a loss to the bank,” said a police
officer.
Ashikul Sheikh, a resident of Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas, was allegedly one of the masterminds and arranged for the borrowers.
The police said his mobile number was provided in at least two of the cars’ registration details. Somenath Ghosh and Avijit Pal, both also from South 24-Parganas, were the borrowers who took a loan of ₹14 lakh each using fake bank statements and IT returns, the police said.
Saifulla Seikh, from Bishnupur, allegedly prepared all the fake documents while the fifth accused — Shankar Gupta, was the alleged
kingpin who disposed of the brand new cars and sold them to buyers.
The police said the five were produced before the court on Wednesday and
were remanded to police
custody.
Sources said further raids are being conducted as more people are suspected to be part of the racket.