Faridabad: Gang forges IDs, avails bank loans, 7 in police net

FARIDABAD: Cops have busted a gang that allegedly forged documents to avail loans from different banks and defaulted on them. Seven of its members have been arrested. The gang has allegedly carried out 180 incidents of cyber fraud using fake documents, Faridabad cyber police said.
The accused have been identified as Ghaziabad residents Vineet, Tikam, Abid, Mukesh and Harmel, and Deepak and Sahil from Delhi.They were arrested from across Delhi-NCR earlier this week and are currently in two days' police remand for questioning.
According to the Faridabad police, the gang forged documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards to apply for loans for vehicles, mobile phones and various gadgets. The cyber team has recovered a computer, printer, three mobile phones, 14 SIM cards and around Rs 15,000 in cash from their possession.
Faridabad DCP (cybercrime) Nitesh Kumar Aggarwal said an FIR was registered at the NIT cyber police station for cheating and conspiracy in October 2022. A Faridabad resident had approached cops after the gang allegedly forged his PAN and Aadhaar cards to get a loan for a mobile phone in his name, which the complainant had no knowledge of, Aggarwal said.
"The victim came to know about the fraud when he visited a bank for a loan. He was told that he has already taken out a loan of about Rs 49,000. He also came to know from the bank that he had 'defaulted' on the loan due to non-payment of installments, which reflected on his CIBIL score and he wasn't eligible for more loans. We started an investigation and a team under inspector Basant of the cyber police station was formed," the DCP further said.
The investigation revealed that Vineet is the mastermind of the gang. Harmel operated a common service centre in UP providing government-related services and procured documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards from across Delhi-NCR, which Mukesh used to prepare the forged papers. Once they purchased products using the loans, they used to sell the items in the market at cheaper rates, Aggarwal said.