A gang of cheats comprising a BBA graduate and two of his accomplices were arrested on Sunday for allegedly duping people of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of getting them loans at minimum interest rates, the police said.
The gang was headed by Ashraf Khan, a resident of Jamia Nagar, who is a BBA graduate. After working for two years, he left his job and started his own business of CCTV marketing and installation in which he suffered loss and underwent a financial crisis.
Crime shows
“Ashraf got in touch with his relatives Tasleem Ahmad, a resident of UP’s Gautam Buddh Nagar, and Muzammil Khan, a resident of UP’s Bulandshahr. They started cheating people together on the pretext of easy loans at low interests. They got the idea from crime shows on the television,” said DCP (South) Vijay Kumar.
The police said that the fraud came into light after a complaint was registered against them at Defence Colony police station. Complainant Meera Devi, a resident of Delhi’s Andrews Ganj, alleged that some unknown persons had duped her of ₹22,000 on the pretext of arranging a loan for her at a very low interest rate. She also mentioned that she had received a loan sanction letter from the accused on a messaging app.
“A police team was formed to trace the gang. The mobile they used to contact the complainant was bought on fake IDs. They used to frequently change their mobile phones and SIM cards to avoid getting traced. However, they were arrested when they came to withdraw cash from an ATM,” said a police officer.
During interrogation, the accused said they had hired three girls as tele-callers and provided them mobile phones to deal with loan applicants. The girls would induce the targets over phone and gave them gullible assurances of easy loans at minimal interest rates. Once the targets showed some interest, they would ask the victim to deposit an amount in a given bank account as a “processing fee” for documentary formalities.
The accused persons provided their targets different account numbers to deposit the amount. After getting the amount deposited in the those accounts, the accused would sent fake, forged loan sanction letters to the targets on WhatsApp or via email. After getting the money, the accused would change their mobile numbers.
“They have confessed to duping hundreds of people. We have seized two cars, ₹3 lakh in cash, one laptop, six mobile phones, 24 SIM cards, several debit cards, letterheads and rubber stamps of various finance companies from their possession,” Mr. Kumar further said.
