A woman who urgently needed money was allegedly advised to take a fake loan for an iPhone purchase and promised to be given the money from the showroom once the loan was sanctioned in her name and the money was credited to the store’s account.

However, she neither got the money nor the iPhone. Instead, as per the loan terms, an EMI was deducted from her account prompting her to lodge a complaint against the man who allegedly cheated her.

She lodged a complaint with Electronic Complex police station, following which the police arrested the accused on Monday.

Police identified the accused as Soumik Bhattacharya. He was arrested from his Dasnagar home in Howrah on Monday.

“We have found that Soumik Bhattacharya had been involved in cheating at least 30-35 others on the pretext of arranging loans for them to purchase expensive phones,” said an officer of Bidhannagar city police.

Bhattacharya was produced in court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody.

The police said Bhattacharya allegedly used to trap people in urgent need of money and convince them to take the loan amount from an electronic showroom in Salt Lake.

“For example, if the cost of a phone is ₹90,000, he would promise to hand over the amount to the person once the loan is sanctioned and the money is credited to the account of the showroom. During this process, he would collect identity documents of the person but would finally not hand over any money,” said an officer.

The victims in whose name the loan would be sanctioned would become liable to repay the loan they never got.

“While purchasing a gadget on EMI, one should be very careful in sharing their documents. Also, most showrooms hand over the product as soon as the loan is sanctioned even before the first EMI is deducted,” said an officer attached to the case.