Mumbai: Seven held for conning banks with fake documents

Representational image. Pic/iStock

The Shivaji Nagar police have arrested seven persons who allegedly used forged documents to procure a home loan amounting to Rs 63 lakh from a private bank. The accused who had forged agreement documents and salary slips even opened a bogus bank account to withdraw the money disbursed.

On April 4, Kiran Sonje - manager of IDBI Bank's Ambernath (East) branch - registered a complaint with the Shivaji Nagar police against Navi Mumbai resident Disha Pote who had applied for a home loan to purchase a flat in Kamothe. The bank asked for the original documents including salary slips and Pote presented a registered sale deed agreement with Jayant and Tandra Bandhopadhyay on December 20, 2022. A team from the loan department checked the documents, conducted site visits and believed the documents and property to be genuine.

On January 5, a loan amount of R63 lakh was sanctioned and disbursed to an account created in Jayant's name at ICICI Bank's Kamothe branch by Pote and her accomplices. When IDBI Bank officials couldn't get in touch with Pote to get the CIDCO NOC, transfer sale deed and final order, they approached Jayant and were shocked to discover that Pote had received the society NOC for both Canara and IDBI banks. Jayant confirmed that he was in talks with Pote to sell the flat and even accepted a token amount of R1 lakh but didn't have any more discussions regarding the sale.

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The IDBI officials also got to know that Pote had shown a sanction letter of Rs 66.5 lakh from Union Bank (Borivli branch) while giving the token amount. Jayant further revealed that he hadn't provided any original documents of his flat, but had given photocopies to an agent who had brought Pote for a deal. The officials learned that he didn't have any account at ICICI's Kamothe branch and checked all the documents provided by Pote. Realising they had been conned they approached the Shivaji
Nagar police.

"During preliminary investigations, we found that Pote had duped two more banks of R1 crore. We checked if any similar offence had been registered in the Navi Mumbai area and found a case at CBD Belapur police station with Shabbir Patel listed as an accused. He was instrumental in preparing forged agreements and appointment letters," senior police inspector Ashok Bhagat of the Shivaji Nagar police station said.

Patel was apprehended from Goregaon on April 14 and questioned about the other accused. He stated that Mandar Naik, 40, stayed at a lodge in Dahisar and he was apprehended from Pranali Lodge. Ramakant Naik, 52, and his daughter Rasika, 26, were nabbed from Dombivli. The documents used to open the bogus account in ICICI were of Rajendra Shetty, 44, while Aadhaar and PAN cards were prepared by Kunal Jogdiya, 40, and Kishor Jain, 28 (both nabbed on April 19).

"They were all produced before the court and sent to police custody. Ramakant is the main culprit. We are yet to arrest Pote. The accused had withdrawn the money and purchased 716.16 grams of gold amounting to R42.97 lakh," Bhagat said, adding that the gold has been seized.

716gm
Amount of gold seized from the accused