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The Enforcement Directorate has busted an organised racket in which bank officials connived with borrowers to forge documents to avail the loan amounts to fraudulently purchase high-end expensive cars.
The racket, which has been in operation for some time, had caused huge losses to a public sector bank.The Enforcement Directorate, in its searches, has seized expensive cars including a BMW, a Volvo, a Land Cruiser and a Mercedes-Benz. The probe agency’s case stems from a CBI FIR and one filed at the Shivaji Nagar Police Station.On 25–26 November, ED officials conducted searches at 12 premises in Pune. The raids were carried out at locations linked to car loan borrowers, car dealers and the then branch manager of a public sector bank."These searches were carried out in a case involving a vehicle loan fraud at SBI, Pune," said ED.The Enforcement Directorate probe has revealed that during 2017–19, Amar Kulkarni, while serving as the chief manager at the SBI University Road branch in Pune, conspired with Aditya Sethia, an Auto Loan Counsellor at SBI Pune, and a few borrowers."They cheated SBI by fraudulently processing and recommending high-value car loans," said ED.During the investigation, it was found that the accused borrowers fraudulently got high-value car loans on "forged documents and cheated the banks.""Bank official Amar Kulkarni is accused of a conspiracy, improperly and dishonestly processed and recommended the high-value car loan proposals of the accused borrowers in violation of the lending policy of the bank without verification of the said bogus forged documents," officials said.Interestingly, in many car loan cases, fake quotations with inflated amounts were submitted to the bank to increase the margin money included in the loan, and the loans were approved using false documents.While conducting searches, the ED identified several high-value cars including BMWs, Volvos, Mercedes and Land Rovers. "After submitting fake documents, the borrowers purchased these high-end cars in conspiracy with the loan agents and the branch manager," said officials.The ED has now seized the high-end cars and documents relating to properties purchased by the borrowers.
