Car loan racket: Cops arrest 7, seize 16 high-end cars | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch has arrested seven persons for operating a fraud car loan racket and has seized 16 high-end vehicles, including BMWs, Fortuners and Thars, worth ₹7.30 crore from Mumbai, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

The police said the vehicles were purchased fraudulently by obtaining bank loans using forged documents of businessmen. The arrested seven worked as agents and procured certain information of the businessmen, like GST registration number, PAN and Aadhaar numbers, to take vehicle loans from financial institutions with forged documents in their names.

The arrested accused were identified as Ravindra Dinanath Girkar alias Pardeep Ravinder Sharma, 47, Manish Subhash Sharma, 39, Sayyed Naveed Sayyed Zulfiqar Ali, 52, Danish Rafiq Khan, 32, Sainath Venkatesh Ganji, 29, Yashkumar Sunilkumar Jain, 33, and Imran Abdul Wahid Khan alias Deva, 38.

Girkar and Manish Sharma are residents of Kalyan, Sayyed Ali is from Kurla, Ganji from Bhiwandi, while Danish Khan, Yashkumar Jain and Imran Khan are residents of Madhya Pradesh. They were all arrested last week and after their police custody ended on Monday, they were produced in the court which remanded them in judicial custody. The police had seized 11 mobile phones, two laptops and two pen drives from them.

The fraud came to light after a case was registered in Park Site police station against Girkar, who had secured a vehicle loan of ₹16 lakh from Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Private Limited for a Mahindra Thar vehicle. After the vehicle was delivered, the accused stopped paying the monthly EMI and disappeared.

“The Mumbai crime branch unit 3 found out that the accused was a part of a bigger racket and had defaulted on several similar loans taken for purchasing high-end vehicles,” said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade of the crime branch.

During the investigation, assistant police inspector Amol Mali of crime branch unit 3 found several leads that members of inter-state gangs were involved in the racket. “Ten police teams were formed and the seven accused were arrested from Mumbai, Thane, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab,” said Mali.

The accused managed to secure personal details and documents of the businessmen through agents, and used the GST, PAN and Aadhaar numbers to open bank accounts. The accused used their own photographs on the forms and used fabricated documents to show huge transactions in the accounts to apply for vehicle loans in financial institutions. They even rented a flat for 2-3 months so that bank officials do not suspect anything during verification. Once the loan was sectioned and they got the vehicle, they drove to other states to search for buyers who were looking for high-end vehicles at lower prices, said police inspector Sadanand Yerekar of unit 3.

At times, the accused would also mortgage the cars and borrow money from private lenders, mostly businessmen, under the pretext of urgent requirements, like a wedding or medical emergency in the family, said the officer.