A resident of Jadavpur, who, according to police, was unemployed, allegedly produced a fake salary slip of an IT company with help from his associates and managed to secure a home loan of ₹50 lakh.

The fraud came to light when he failed to pay the EMIs.

The police said Sheikh Shanu, 41, approached a private bank posing as an IT sector employee and applied for a home loan to buy a flat in Joka. He submitted his identity documents and salary slip as proof of his salary against which the loan was sanctioned.

Four persons, including Shanu, were arrested between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning from Karaya, Rabindranagar, Bishnupur and Thakurpukur.

The other three have been identified as Debopriyo Banerjee, 31, of Rabindranagar, Jaydip Ghorami, 28, of Bishnupur, and Samrat Guha, 50, of Thakurpukur.

All four have been sent to police custody till June 13.

“After Shanu failed to repay the loan and defaulted on the EMIs, the bank initiated an inquiry and scrutinised his documents. It was during the internal inquiry that bank officials found the documents submitted by him were forged and that the said flat was never purchased,” said an officer of the detective department of Kolkata Police.

The bank reported the fraud to the police in August last year, prompting a probe.

During the investigation, the police said they found Shanu had submitted fake documents to the bank.

“Shanu, in connivance with others, prepared forged, fabricated documents including, salary account statement, fake KYC like Aadhaar, PAN, and property documents to obtain the home loan,” said Rupesh Kumar, joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police.

The documents related to the flat for which the loan was taken were also found to be fake.

“Shanu and his associates defrauded the bank with malafide intention, causing wrongful loss on the part of the bank and subsequent gain on the part of the accused,” an officer of the anti-bank fraud section of the detective department said.