NOIDA
The Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (UP-STF) busted an interstate syndicate that allegedly forged identities and documents to obtain high-value loans, arresting eight members in Gautam Budh Nagar late Thursday, officers aware of the developments said on Friday.
They have reportedly defrauded banks to the tune of over ₹100 crore, officers said.
Police said the suspects fabricated Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and bank documents to secure approvals.
Raj Kumar Mishra, additional superintendent of police, UP STF (Noida), said, “The network involved multiple roles: document forgers, field operatives who identified potential applicants, and those who arranged property papers or fake business details to support applications. Several shell companies, such as those under the names Triptechie and Tejshree Enterprises, were allegedly created to generate bogus income proofs and KYC trails”.
Officers said the STF’s Noida unit was tipped off about individuals in Surajpur selling forged profiles and counterfeit documents to potential borrowers. Officials said the gang had been operating across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana.
Police said the mastermind of the gang, Ramakumar, 45, of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, previously worked with HDFC Bank and IDFC Bank, and was familiar with the loan processing systems. He is accused of preparing fake financial documents for clients and arranging loans in their names in exchange for a commission. Police said the group engaged in identity theft to secure credit from banks and NBFCs.
The other accused were identified as Nitin Jain, of Najafgarh in Delhi, Moti Rabi, of Ranchi in Jharkhand, Shyam Narayan Alam, of Fatuha in Bihar, Indrakumar Karmikar, of Gurugram, Anuj Yadav, of Sahibabad, Tariq Ahmed, of Jhansi, and Ashok alias Deepu Jain, of West Patel Nagar in Delhi.
Investigators said they have traced loans obtained in the names of deceased people, from across Rajasthan, Delhi and Bihar. In one instance, a loan of ₹4.8 crore was obtained against the name of a woman a year after she had died.
Police said their clients sought such loans to buy luxury vehicles, flats and other commercial goods. The group had facilitated the purchase of a property in Shahdara using fabricated income documents and forged IDs in one such case.
Police said they recovered a large cache of forged documents, 126 chequebooks and passbooks of multiple banks, 170 ATM cards-several linked to fraudulent accounts-45 Aadhaar cards, 47 PAN cards, 5 voter ID cards, 26 mobile phones, 3 laptops, and 8 vehicles, including a Mahindra Thar and a Kia Seltos.
Approximately 220 bank accounts linked to the syndicate have been frozen, police said.
Navendu Kumar, deputy SP, STF (Noida), said the racket operated like a coordinated financial service network. “The accused used forged documents to create credible-looking financial profiles and took advantage of gaps in verification systems. Their operations were spread across multiple states, and several banks were defrauded. Further investigations are underway to identify more linked accounts and beneficiaries,” he said.
The arrested men have been booked under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 318(4), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with provisions of the IT Act. They were produced in court and remanded to judicial custody.
Police said the number of victims may exceed 100, and more complaints from Noida, Lucknow, Varanasi, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Delhi and Gurugram are emerging as scrutiny of seized devices continues.