Navi Mumbai businessman duped of Rs 1.25 cr in loan fraud

The police on Monday said that a businessman from Navi Mumbai was allegedly cheated of Rs 125 crore by four persons who assured to arrange loans for him reported news agency PTIBased on a complaint lodged by the 78yearold Airoli resident the police on Saturday registered a case under sections 3165 criminal breach of trust 3183 cheating and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita an official said reported PTIHe said that the accused contacted the Navi Mumbai businessman who owns a machine tools company in the Rabale MIDC area between December 2023 and March 2025 and allegedly promised to arrange for business loans of Rs 100 crore and Rs 200 croreIn the course of their interactions the accused fabricated demand drafts and cheques from three different banks and used forged signatures and counterfeit bank seals to gain the complainants trust and extort money in the guise of loan processing and administrative fees the official said reported PTIHe said the Navi Mumbai businessman reportedly transferred Rs 125 crore into various bank accounts linked to the accused but no loan ever materialisedThe case was registered against the accused Dhanesh Deshmukh 44 Pramila Lad 65 Prashant alias Raju Pillai and Pushpa Gupte the official said adding that no one has been arrested so far reported PTIThane police bust digital arrest fraud with overseas links 3 held for duping woman of Rs 3 crIn another case the police have arrested three persons allegedly linked to an international fraud syndicate for cheating an elderly woman in Maharashtras Thane city of more than Rs 3 crore after keeping her under digital arrest officials said on Sunday reported PTIThe 61yearold woman received a call on August 13 2024 from some persons posing as courier company personnel claiming they had seized her parcel containing a laptop 140 grams of MD drug powder a Thai passport three credit cards and four kg of cloth items they saidSoon after an individual impersonating a CBI officer called the victim from a different number in a bid to verify her identity The fraudster displayed some fabricated documents and coerced her into transferring funds after keeping her under digital arrest as per the police reported PTIThe woman later transferred Rs 304 crore into two different accounts at separate nationalised banks the police said in a releaseThe audacity of the accused is evident in how they exploited the victims trust by masquerading as highranking officials Deputy Commissioner of Police Parag Manere said reported PTIA First Information Report FIR was registered on September 13 last year under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 3184 cheating 3165 criminal breach of trust 3363 forgery and 3402 using a forged document or electronic record as genuine as well as relevant provisions of the Information Technology ActAn extensive probe by the Thane cyber police uncovered links to an international syndicate as the fraudsters managed to transfer Rs 8246 lakh overseas with the funds allegedly converted into US dollars VDA virtual digital asset the police said reported PTIThe investigation led to the arrest of three persons on June 19 They have been identified as Kishore Bansilal Jain 63 chairman of the Sri Satkar Pathpedi coop credit society in Mumbai Mahesh Pawan Kothari 36 associated with the garment and imitation jewellery business and Dhaval Santosh Bhalerao 26 involved in the cosmetics business the release said reported PTIThe accused had meticulously crafted their story for the victim to induce panic and confusion The crossborder nature of the transaction underscores the complexity and reach of the modern financial fraud Manere saidWith inputs from PTI