CHENNAI:A 33-year-old man who had managed to con a nationalised bank here into giving him a loan of nearly Rs 40 lakh using forged documents to buy a Mercedes Benz — which he soon sold illegally — was finally nabbed by sleuths from the Central Crime Branch.
Officials said Kamalesh from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh was part of a racket that used similar modus operandi to buy luxury cars on loan and sell these in neighbouring states to earn a fast buck.
Police said Kamalesh, a Class VII dropout and a married man, applied for a vehicle loan with the Alandur branch of SBI in March 2014 to purchase a Mercedes Benz E220. He produced an account statement from Karur Vysya Bank and an IT returns document while seeking loan of about Rs 37 lakh.
However, soon after purchasing the car with the loan money, Kamalesh vanished with the vehicle without paying a penny of the EMI. Following repeated defaults, the bank decided to attach the car. That was when they learnt that the car had already been sold. When the bank officials checked the documents Kamalesh submitted, they were found to be forged.
Following this, bank manager D C Ashwath Durai Selvam petitioned Police Commissioner S George, seeking to prosecute the defaulter. On receiving a tip-off about Kamalesh’s whereabouts, CCB sleuths finally managed to arrest him on Tuesday.
Merc Bought on Loan illegally Sold to Kerala Buyer?
As they were investigating the case, Kamalesh surfaced in the State and was to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and then to Kerala, all the while managing to give CCB sleuths the slip. Meanwhile, the recovery team of the bank received information about Kamalesh’s whereabouts and tipped off the officials. Based on the inputs, CCB sleuths finally managed to arrest him on Tuesday.
Kamalesh, married and settled in Vellore, began his career as earthmover operator. As it was not a promising profession, he tried his hand at running his own fast food outlet, which also failed to take-off. That was when he applied for the car loan.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Kamalesh was part of a larger racket that has been targeting banks by going through private agencies that facilitate loans. It is not clear how he managed to raise the amount to pay the down-payment, if any.
Asked how hypothecated vehicles can be sold, ACP (CCB-Bankfraud) C Jayasingh said that these are sold to a particular target group purchasing such vehicles. “People in neighbouring States will not have any problem in driving around hypothecated vehicles from here. In this particular case, we believe the car has been sold to a person in Kerala,” he said. However, it is not clear how much he sold the vehicle for.
On the failure of background verification process before extending the loan, the official maintained that this would also be looked into soon.