MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime department has arrested seven individuals for working a fraud automobile mortgage racket and has seized 16 high-end automobiles, together with BMWs, Fortuners and Thars, price ₹7.30 crore from Mumbai, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
Mumbai, India – 24, Feb 2025: Crime Department Unit 03 has arrested seven suspects for allegedly procuring high-end automobiles utilizing solid paperwork, the Crime Department has seized 16 automobiles, together with fashions equivalent to BMW, Fortuner, and Scorpio, the accused had been arrested from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai, the gang used to promote these automobiles at half the market value, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, Feb 24, 2025. (Photograph by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photograph)
The police stated the automobiles had been bought fraudulently by acquiring financial institution loans utilizing solid paperwork of businessmen. The arrested seven labored as brokers and procured sure data of the businessmen, like GST registration quantity, PAN and Aadhaar numbers, to take car loans from monetary establishments with solid paperwork of their names.
The arrested accused had been recognized as Ravindra Dinanath Girkar alias Pardeep Ravinder Sharma, 47, Manish Subhash Sharma, 39, Sayyed Naveed Sayyed Zulfiqar Ali, 52, Danish Rafiq Khan, 32, Sainath Venkatesh Ganji, 29, Yashkumar Sunilkumar Jain, 33, and Imran Abdul Wahid Khan alias Deva, 38.
Girkar and Manish Sharma are residents of Kalyan, Sayyed Ali is from Kurla, Ganji from Bhiwandi, whereas Danish Khan, Yashkumar Jain and Imran Khan are residents of Madhya Pradesh. They had been all arrested final week and after their police custody ended on Monday, they had been produced within the court docket which remanded them in judicial custody. The police had seized 11 cell phones, two laptops and two pen drives from them.
The fraud got here to mild after a case was registered in Park Website police station in opposition to Girkar, who had secured a car mortgage of ₹16 lakh from Mahindra and Mahindra Monetary Non-public Restricted for a Mahindra Thar car. After the car was delivered, the accused stopped paying the month-to-month EMI and disappeared.
“The Mumbai crime branch unit 3 found out that the accused was a part of a bigger racket and had defaulted on several similar loans taken for purchasing high-end vehicles,” stated deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade of the crime department.
Through the investigation, assistant police inspector Amol Mali of crime department unit 3 discovered a number of leads that members of inter-state gangs had been concerned within the racket. “Ten police teams were formed and the seven accused were arrested from Mumbai, Thane, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab,” stated Mali.
The accused managed to safe private particulars and paperwork of the businessmen by brokers, and used the GST, PAN and Aadhaar numbers to open financial institution accounts. The accused used their very own pictures on the varieties and used fabricated paperwork to point out enormous transactions within the accounts to use for car loans in monetary establishments. They even rented a flat for 2-3 months in order that financial institution officers don’t suspect something throughout verification. As soon as the mortgage was sectioned and so they bought the car, they drove to different states to seek for consumers who had been searching for high-end automobiles at decrease costs, stated police inspector Sadanand Yerekar of unit 3.
At occasions, the accused would additionally mortgage the automobiles and borrow cash from personal lenders, largely businessmen, underneath the pretext of pressing necessities, like a marriage or medical emergency within the household, stated the officer.