Seven people have been arrested from across the city on Tuesday for allegedly cheating a nationalised bank by taking 18 loans totalling Rs 1.78 crore in the name of a purported car trading company in Salt Lake by furnishing forged documents.
The accused had first approached the Bhowanipore branch of the bank for a car loan on behalf of the car trading company, police said.
“Two of the accused produced documents on behalf of the car trading company and convinced the bank to sanction a total of 18 loans to the tune of Rs 1.78 crore from various branches of the bank,” said an officer.
The police said different cars were displayed against which loans were sanctioned.
“Fifteen loans were sanctioned from the Bhowanipore branch, two from Lower Circular Road and one from Hatibagan. They were sanctioned to two people who were purchasing cars from the company. The entire loan amount was credited to an account in the name of the car trading company,” said the officer.
A few months later, the two who took the loans failed to pay the EMIs and the loans were declared non-performing assets. The bank reported this to the police earlier this month.
During investigation, the police found that the documents submitted to the bank for the loans were forged and could not trace any such car trading company.
The money transferred to the company’s account had been transferred to at least two bank accounts from where it was withdrawn.
The accused have been charged under sections of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and criminal conspiracy.