New Delhi: When 60-year-old man Mahender Pal, a resident of Hathin in Haryana’s Palwal, received a cheque book in his name three months ago, he was puzzled as he had never opened the bank account in the first place.
A further enquiry had more shock in store for him; he realised that someone had forged documents in his names, opened an account using the fake credentials and also obtained a loan of Rs 20 lakh, police said on Friday.
Police said Pal received the cheque book three months ago from the branch of a private bank at SS Plaza in Sector 47 after which he started gathering information to realise that he also had a loan issued against him from another branch of the same bank in Palwal in two instalments in May and September 2022, said police.
They said the prime suspect is a loan agent from Sohna who a liaison between several banks, farmers and cold storage builders. Inspector Subhash Chand, station house officer of Gurugram Sadar police station, said the agent had taken several documents from Pal with his signatures on them for getting a loan processed in early 2022.
Fraud Began In 2020
They suspected that it could be the same documents the accused misused. Pal is a mushroom farmer. He needed a loan of Rs 20 lakh for setting up a cold storage, added the police official.
“The involvement of the bank authorities could not be ruled out as neither the victim’s signature, photo, phone number nor identity documents were used for opening the account. It only had Pal’s address but contact number was of the agent,” Chand said, adding that Pal had never visited the Sector 47 branch where the account was opened.
The inspector said the loan amount of Rs 20 lakh was transferred to the account of a firm in Kundli which constructs cold storage facilities. An against the suspect and unidentified bank officials has been filed, while the police is looking into all aspects.
