Inter-state car sale gang busted; 7 held, 12 vehicles worth Rs 2.34 cr seized

Palghar: Seven persons were arrested for allegedly operating an inter-state racket involving sale of cars purchased through banks loans using fake documents, a Palghar police official said on Monday.

Twelve cars, including makes like BMW, Mahindra Thar, Toyota, KIA etc, cumulatively valued at Rs 2.34 crore have been seized from the gang, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II Vasai) Poornima Chougule Shringi.

“The probe began after an accused took the documents of a man claiming he could get the latter a bank loan of Rs 2 crore. Using these documents, he obtained loans from several banks in the name of the victim and his wife, generated fake email IDs,” the DCP 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 about 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,” the official said.

The gang was targeting those who were in need of loans by showing they have influence in several banks, obtaining loans with the documents of victims, buying high end cars, and then selling them using forged documents at Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) to show these loans had been repaid, as per police.

The persons arrested hail from Thane and Mumbai as well as Bhopal in MP and it has led to detection of crimes in several parts of Mumbai, Achole here, Shil Daighar in Thane, Vadodara and Ankleshwar in Gujarat, the DCP said.