Bank reports fraud of over ₹4 cr.; FIR lodged

Role of three employees under scanner

Photo for representation.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police has registered an FIR against unknown persons for allegedly siphoning off ₹4.24 crore from a bank after creating various accounts based on fake documents of government employees, said officials on Friday.

On Thursday, the police said they received a complaint from the assistant vice-president of risk management and control at HDFC Bank, Amit Sahni. He said that during scrutiny, they have detected fraud and identified 62 personal loans, including 38 credit cards, with an outstanding amount of ₹4.24 crore, which was disbursed to various customers in Delhi.

In his complaint, he said the fraudsters approached the bank posing as potential customers who had come to open a savings account. The accused then applied for personal loans and credit cards, which were introduced to them by three sales executives of the bank who helped the ‘customers’ with the forged documents. Following this, personal loans and credit cards were granted and issued by the bank on the basis of the forged employment documents submitted by the ‘customers’, Mr. Sahni said.

It has been found that the alleged accused introduced themselves as government employees — lower division clerk, upper division clerk, teachers, civic body officials, and other government officials. They provided fake bank statements, salary slips, certificates in support of their employment from their respective ‘government offices’.

62 cases detected

The bank has provided the police with details of 62 such cases detected by them during their internal inquiry. They have also given the details of the three bank executives, who had sourced these accounts. The role of the executives is under the scanner, the police said.

“It has been found that loans were obtained from HDFC Bank on the basis of fake salary certificate and employment credentials of civic body schools and offices. An FIR has been registered under IPC Sections 420 [cheating], 468 [forgery for purpose of cheating] and 471 [using as genuine a forged] at EOW. The case is under investigation,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) Suvashish Choudhary.