KOCHI: About two years ago, an advertisement seen widely in the city read: ‘Housing and Business loans without a CIBIL score.’ Besides, there was a facility for the takeover of existing loans that are in default. The only condition to avail the offer was to pay 10 percent of the loan amount in advance as processing charges.
However, it came to light later that it was the handiwork of a racket involving Tamil Nadu natives based in Kochi. Hundreds of people fell prey to the fraud, their combined loss running into crores. The key accused Lingamurthy aka Ramalingam, 55, and Shanmukhavel Namasivayam, 42 were arrested from Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu.
For the police team headed by Central Police SHO S Vijayashankar, cracking the case was a herculean task as the accused had fled the city without leaving any clue, not even a phone number. The accused duo carried out all transactions using an Aadhaar card taken by Lingamurthy, the first accused, with a Cheranelloor address, where they stayed on rent.
They had opened a firm named Money Max Home Fin on MG Road in January 2020. But after five months, they shut the office and fled. In 2020 itself, the Kochi City police had received complaints from several persons regarding loan fraud. While the all-out search for the accused went in vain, the investigators found a date of birth — suspected to be of an accused — from one of the documents seized from the MG Road office.
The police team approached the Bureau of Immigration to find out if any passport had been issued based on that date of birth. After a prolonged search, it was found that a passport was indeed issued with that date of birth, and the address belonged to one Lingamurthy of Pudukkottai.
The investigators tracked the person down at that address, and on interrogation, he disclosed the whereabouts of the other accused. A police team from Pudukottai also helped the Central Police team to net the fraudsters.
“The chargesheet has been filed before the court. The accused were involved in another fraud, and an investigation is under way into that case too,” said Vijayashankar.