The trio fraudulently availed bank loans to buy cars and resell them at a profit. (Representational)
Three men were arrested for allegedly defrauding several banks, including one of Rs 2.5 crore, by availing loans using fake documents, police said on Thursday.
To avail the loans, they used to get Aadhaar cards updated or made by conniving with some "targeted persons" whom they would promise a certain amount of money, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prashant Gautam said.
They used the loans to buy cars and resell them at a profit, he said, adding that using fake documents, including counterfeited Aadhaar cards, they had opened several savings accounts in different banks to get new cars financed.
"The gang indulged in defrauding banks of crores of rupees in a planned and systematic manner by exploiting the vulnerability in updating Aadhaar cards," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Gautam said.
"They managed to open numerous saving accounts online using the fake documents under fictitious identities and availed different categories of loans for more than Rs 2.5 crore from HDFC Bank and got more than 10 cars financed through different banks," he said.
Police said after defaulting payments, they used to leave the addresses they had provided to the banks.
Vijay Chaudhary, Birender and Kuldeep have been arrested and two cars, which were financed using fake documents, and sold, and Rs 8 lakh seized, they said. Chaudhary was the mastermind of the crime and the other two his associates.
The matter came to light after a complaint was received from the HDFC Bank, police said.
The bank said they have identified 15 saving accounts opened online in the name of different persons who have availed loans and not paid them. The defaulters are not traceable, it said in its complaint.
In initial probe, it was found that these 15 bank accounts were opened by five persons using different names, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and addresses, police said.
During investigation, it was learnt that one of the gang's members had booked a car at a showroom in the Patparganj Industrial Area under a fake identity of Ramesh Verma and a false address in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, DCP Gautam said.
Information was received that they might come on February 28 to the showroom to get delivery of the car, he said The officer said that "when accused Vijay and Birender came to the showroom, they were apprehended on the spot at the time of taking delivery of the car booked on forged documents". Subsequently, the third accused, Kuldeep, was apprehended from the Bahadurgarh border, Mr Gautam said.
During interrogation, it was learnt they used to sell cars at a profit of "40 per cent". They "used to get fake Aadhaar card prepared of targeted persons with the promise to share a portion of profit earned from the business of crime", the officer said.
"Vijay has claimed that they manipulate the system of updating details in Aadhaar by replacing finger prints of left hand with finger prints of right hand and by putting coloured contact lenses in the eyes to dupe biometric process of recognising retina. These are being verified," the DCP said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)