A married couple has been arrested at Saraswati Vihar here for alleged involvement in a conspiracy to cheat banks by obtaining loans on the basis of forged property documents.
On October 31, the police received a call from the Pitampura branch of Nainital Bank alleging that a woman had been caught trying to withdraw Rs.5 lakh, part of a loan amount obtained through fraudulent means.
According to the complaint, one Sanjeev Mittal had on October 20 applied for housing loan of Rs.27 lakh to buy a property in Sector-11 of Rohini from its owner Sunita Khera. He provided the necessary papers and allegedly connived with Ajay Gupta, his wife Archana and Govind to present her as the property owner.
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After verifying the facts, the bank manager granted housing loan to Sanjeev, who was later identified as Praveen Jain. Of the total amount, Rs.2 lakh was transferred to the account opened in the name of Sanjeev Mittal, and a pay-order for Rs.25 lakh was handed over to Archana, who was allegedly posing as the property owner, Sunita Khera.
The pay-order was deposited in her account and Rs.9 lakh withdrawn from it on October 29. The cash was handed over to Praveen inside the bank premises. The bank officials came to know about the conspiracy. They found that the same property had already been mortgaged to other banks. When Archana came to the bank on October 31 along with her husband to withdraw Rs.5 lakh, the bank manager got them arrested. During interrogation, the couple purportedly disclosed that Praveen was the mastermind behind the racket. The police are on the lookout for Praveen and other accomplices.