Palghar: Inter-state car sale gang busted; 7 held, 12 high-end vehicles seized

Representation image. File pic

Seven persons were arrested for allegedly operating an inter-state racket involving sale of cars purchased through bank loans using fake documents, reported news wire PTI.

Twelve cars, including makes like BMW, Mahindra Thar, Toyota, KIA and others, total valued at Rs 2.34 crore were also seized from the gang, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II Vasai) Poornima Chougule Shringi.

As per the report, the investigation began after an accused took the documents from a man, claiming he could get the customer a bank loan of Rs 2 crore. Using the collected documents, the accused obtained loans from several banks in the name of the customer and his wife, generated fake email IDs, the police said.

After the victim realised loans worth Rs 2.84 crore had been taken in his name fraudulently, he approached Achole police in September last year, leading to a probe team zeroing in on main accused Rahul Girish Shah, the official said.

"Shah was using a fake Aadhaar card to move in Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi and neighbouring country Nepal, staying in posh hotels and running the racket. He was held on February 3 this year from a hotel in Powai. We found three fake Aadhaar cards, nine SIM cards, including one from Nepal, electronic items, fake bank NoCs etc," PTI reported quoting an official.

According to the police, the gang targeted those who were in need of loans by showing their influence in several banks, obtaining loans with the documents of victims. They then bought high end cars, and later sold them using forged documents at Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) to show these loans had been repaid.

The persons arrested hail from Mumbai, Thane and Bhopal. The action led to detection of crimes in several parts of Mumbai, Thane, Vadodara and Ankleshwar in Gujarat.

(With PTI inputs)