Three held for duping people over bank loans

New Delhi, April 29 (IANS) Three people have been arrested for cheating people on the pretext of providing them loans in the form of bank guarantees against their property, police said on Friday.

Police said Vijay Porter, 51, Chander Prakash, 43, Kewal Krishna, 49, and their two women aides cheated a management consultant Mukul Paul Taneja of Rs.9 lakh on the pretext of providing him bank guarantee of Rs.50 crore in lieu of his residential property in 2015.

"The accused have cheated several other people by using the same modus operandi. We are finding out the details of other victims," Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Singh said.

The officer said Porter and Prakash were held on April 18 from different areas in east Delhi while Krishna was arrested on Wednesday -- also from east Delhi -- following the complaint of the victim on October 30, 2015.

"Porter and Prakash had approached Taneja in March last year introducing themselves as liaison professionals working for State Bank of India (SBI) and dealing in sanction of loans. They also succeeded in convincing to provide him loan in the form of bank guarantee of Rs.50 crore sanctioned from an SBI branch in Parliament Street area in Delhi against his residential property," the officer said.

"They demanded Rs.25 lakh from Taneja as facilitation fee but he agreed to pay Rs.9-10 lakh in parts," the officer said.

He further said the accused took Rs.9 lakh from Taneja between September-October, 2015 for getting the bank guarantee sanctioned.

"On October 30, 2015, Taneja was called by the accused at the SBI branch to provide the first instalment of Rs.10.80 crore of his bank guarantee. But the accused turned up and kept procrastinating on the pretext about delay in disbursement of said money. Thereafter, the victim realised of being duped and approached police," the officer said.

Police said the arrested accused were passing through a difficult financial situation.

Porter, the mastermind, hatched a plan to cheat people on the false pretext of getting them huge non-refundable loan amount sanctioned.

"He then roped in his friends Prakash, Krishna and a woman Aarti (name changed) in his gang to cheat people. He also stole some stamps from the SBI branch at Parliament Street. He used the same stamp the fake letters for duping people," the officer said.