In a significant crackdown, the Detective Department of the Kolkata Police has apprehended a man from Gujarat for orchestrating a sophisticated loan fraud amounting to a staggering Rs 2 crore. The scam involved using fabricated identity and property documents in the name of an unsuspecting 75-year-old woman residing in the city's Chitpore area.
The Unraveling of a Calculated Scam
The elaborate fraud came to light only when the concerned bank noticed that the repayment instalments for the loan had stopped completely. Alarmed, bank officials reached out to the registered borrower, the elderly woman from Chitpore. To their shock, the woman and her family had no knowledge of any such loan application or disbursement. They had never applied for nor received any loan funds.
With immediate assistance from their lawyer, Amartya, the victim's family filed a formal complaint at the Chitpore Police Station. The case was subsequently transferred to the central detective headquarters at Lalbazar for a detailed investigation.
Modus Operandi and the Arrest
Police investigation revealed that a gang, led by the prime accused Jayanta Ghosh, meticulously executed the fraud. They submitted a complete set of forged documents, including fake ID proofs and property deeds, to make it appear as if the elderly woman was the legitimate borrower seeking the massive loan.
Once the bank sanctioned and disbursed the Rs 2 crore loan amount, the accused swiftly diverted the entire sum into various different accounts to erase the trail. Prior to Ghosh's arrest, the police had already taken three other members of this fraud ring into custody.
Cross-State Chase and Future Plans Foiled
During the initial probe, police gathered intelligence suggesting that the mastermind, Jayanta Ghosh, had fled to Gujarat and was allegedly in the process of setting up another fraudulent operation from there. Utilizing technical surveillance and tracking his mobile phone signals, a Kolkata Police team pinpointed his location in Gujarat.
Acting on this crucial lead, the detectives traveled to Gujarat and successfully arrested Ghosh. His plans to initiate a new fraud scheme were effectively thwarted by this timely intervention. The Kolkata Police have highlighted this case as a warning against sophisticated financial crimes targeting vulnerable sections, including the elderly.
The arrest underscores the increasing trend of inter-state financial frauds and the methods employed by law enforcement to track and apprehend culprits who operate across geographical boundaries. Further investigations are ongoing to trace the entire money trail and recover the defrauded amount.
