Fake govt IDs, forged salary slips: How a gang scammed banks for personal loans

First, several bank accounts were opened using fake government employee IDs and documents. Then, money was transferred to these accounts from fraudulent company accounts in the name of “salary”, every month. This is how a gang allegedly scammed banks and secured personal loans since 2019, police said.

After over six years, the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s Western Range-II unit busted the gang and arrested three key accused on December 29, officers said. The accused were identified as Atul Agarwal alias Manish Kumar (40) from Bihar’s Patna, Ajay Chaurasia (46) from Delhi’s Nihal Vihar, and Deepak Dhoundiyal (49) from Uttarakhand’s Dehradun.

Police said that all three had previously worked in the banking sector and knew how loan applications are approved.

Police said the fraud came to light in 2022 when Loknarayan Karotiya, an assistant manager with Bajaj Finance, was reviewing the statements of some loan accounts at his Pitampura office. He noticed that EMIs were bouncing from the salary accounts of three men working at the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) building at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.

The scam unravelled after Karotiya allegedly directed his employees to visit the three at their “registered” office—the Principal Director of Commercial Audit in the CAG building. They discovered that the three never worked at the office and secured the loans using fabricated documents, the FIR filed in the case stated.

It added that Manish had taken a loan of Rs 9.8 lakh, Manpreet took Rs 10 lakh, and Harveen Rs 8.5 lakh from Bajaj Finance in 2019 — all by leveraging fabricated salary account statements. They pretended to hold designations like Senior Audit Officer and had submitted fake government IDs along with income documents to secure the personal loans, police said.

Karotiya in September 2022 filed a complaint against the three, along with one Anirudh, police said. An internal probe by Bajaj Finance also revealed that the salary accounts of these men were allegedly emptied each month, soon after the money was credited.

To track down the gang, a specialised team was formed. It conducted raids at over two dozen addresses before arresting the accused, officers said.

On how the scam played out, police said that the accused, along with their associates, would first identify and coax different people to be part of the fraudulent scheme. They would then allegedly prepare forged documents and open accounts in different banks for the recruited individuals, police said.

Then, for several months, the accused deposited money into these accounts from their fraudulent company accounts, with transaction remarks indicating “salary”, officers added.

Police said that banks, seeing consistent monthly salary credits, would start offering personal loans at favourable rates meant for government employees with steady income.

“As soon as the salary accounts received a loan offer from a bank, they would apply for it,” DCP (Crime Branch) Harsh Indora said. To avoid immediate detection, police said, the accused even paid EMIs on the loans for several months. Once enough time had passed, they would allegedly stop paying entirely, officers added.

The person whose photograph and forged documents were used to create the accounts and obtain the loan would receive some money as compensation, while the remaining amount was divided amongst the gang members.

Agarwal, who had studied up to Class 10, worked in banking before turning to crime for easy money. He posed as ‘Manish Kumar’ and personally obtained a loan from Bajaj Finance using the fake identity of a government employee, police said.

Chaurasia, educated up to Class 8, also had banking sector experience, police said. His role allegedly involved opening fake bank accounts and crediting money with false salary remarks to establish the accounts as legitimate salaried ones.

Dhoundiyal, a graduate, similarly leveraged his banking background to orchestrate the fraud. His familiarity with verification procedures likely helped the gang avoid detection for years, police said.

“To earn easy money, Dhoundiyal got involved in the crime,” the officer said. Further investigation is underway to identify additional victims, trace other gang members, and determine the full extent of the fraud, police added.