A GANG OF CHEATS INDULGED IN PROCURING CARS/SUV ON FINANCE ON FAKE NAMES, IDS, DOCUMENTS AND ADDRESSES BUSTED

• 3 ACCUSED ARRESTED INCLUDING ONE WANTED.
• 1 FINANCED VEHICLE AND 1 RC OF ANOTHER FINANCED VEHICLE RECOVERED.
• PROCURED MORE THAN 20 FINANCED COSTLY CARS AND SUVS.
• CHEATED BANKS/ FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS/ CAR SHOWROOMS FOR MORE THAN RS 2 CRORES.

In a major breakthrough, Crime Branch has busted a gang of 3 cheats, who were indulged in procuring costly cars/SUVs on finance on the basis of fake names, IDs, documents and addresses. The names and addresses of the accused persons are as under: (i) Manoj Makhija @ Gagan @ Harish Gera (33 yrs) s/o Late Nanak Chand r/o G-8/33, Sector-15, Rohini, Delhi, his younger brother (ii) Amit Makhija @ Mohit @ Ravi @ Dev Sharma (31 yrs) and (iii) Gaurav Kapoor @ Pankaj Arora (28 yrs) s/o Pradeep Kumar r/o 187, Pocket-4, Sector A-9, Narela, Delhi. Gaurav Kapoor is wanted in FIR No.148/16, u/s 420/406/468/34 IPC, PS Sadar Bazar and proceedings u/s 83 CrPC have been completed against him. From their possession, one financed vehicle Tata Zest and one RC belonging to another vehicle have been recovered, which were obtained by them on the basis of fake documents and addresses. From their arrest, around 20 cases registered in various parts of Delhi have been worked out.  

TEAM, INCIDENT AND OPERATION: - 

In the wake of series of cases registered in various parts of Delhi about financing of costly cars and SUVs on the basis of fake documents and addresses and further sold out in Delhi & NCR, a dedicated team of Northern Range of Crime Branch was tasked to develop information about such criminals for nabbing them. A team of Northern Range led by ACP D.P. Singh, consisting of Inspr. Ravinder Verma, SI Baljeet Singh, ASI Mahesh, Harvinder, HCs Vijay Tyagi, Yatender, Amit, Cts Sonu, Bijender and Rahul was constituted under the supervision of DCP Madhur Verma and under overall guidance of Addl.CP K.K. Vyas to nab such notorious criminals. A careful study regarding their modus operandi was carried out and surveillance was mounted.

On 09.02.17, a secret input was received by SI Baljeet Singh that 3 such accused persons would come near Service road at Munak Nahar Bridge, Sector-18, Rohini, Delhi to dispose off one financed vehicle, which was obtained by them on the basis of fake documents. Accordingly, a trap was laid at the given place and they were apprehended on the spot alongwith one Tata Zest car without number plate, original registration number of which was later revealed as DL-8CAL-2762. On verification, it was revealed that the recovered vehicle was got financed by accused Amit Makhija in the name of Ravi Kumar on the basis of forged documents and a complaint is pending in PS Shalimar Bagh. Accused Gaurav Kapoor was found wanted in case FIR No.148/16 u/s 420/406/468/34 IPC, PS Sadar Bazar and proceedings u/s 83 CrPC have been completed against him. Accused Amit Makhija @ Mohit @ Ravi @ Dev Sharma was found involved in case FIR No.722/15 dated u/s 420/406/468/471/120B IPC, PS Patel Nagar in which he himself procured a SUV Scorpio on the basis of forged documents and address from Punjab and Sind Bank, Patel Nagar.

Accused Manoj Makhija @ Gagan @ Harish Gera was found involved in case FIR No.164/15, u/s 420/406/468/471/120B IPC, PS Barakhamba Road in which he himself procured a Honda City car No.DL-4CAU-7939 on the basis of forged documents and address from State Bank of India, Janpath, Delhi and from his possession one RC of this vehicle was recovered. All the 3 accused persons were arrested under appropriate sections of law.

MODUS OPERANDI:-

Accused persons belong to a gang consisting of more than 8-10 people. Firstly, accused used to locate a high profile residential area to procure vehicles, which is usually given good/positive ratings by the banks. They used to hire  costly houses or flats preferrably in which owners were not residing and then they used to create fake IDs i.e. PAN card, Voter card, Aadhar cards, bank statements and subscribed mobile numbers on fake IDs. Then they approached nationalized banks for procuring loans on cars on fake names and IDs. Generally, nationalized banks were in a hurry to provide loans on cars to compete in market and fulfill their assigned targets. After receiving the application of accused, bank officials usually conducted online verification of IDs. Accused persons also offered commission on finance amount to loan managers and verification staff, who used to visit their rented premises to fulfill their task. They also managed some known lady and children at rented premises, where verification was to be conducted by the bank officials, to give impression that they were genuine customers.

After verification by the bank officials, their loans were sanctioned and thereafter bank issued draft to concerned showroom of car. Thereafter, accused persons got delivery of cars from showroom. Immediately, after receiving the vehicle, they sold out it to the aspiring buyers on 40% value of the vehicle within a week. The whole process of obtaining delivery of cars used to complete within 2 to 4 days. Mostly, they targetted only nationalized banks and then vanish from the rented premises.

For obtaining vehicles, banks required residential address, bank account, one mobile number, office, income tax returns, PAN Card, Bank statements of applicant. The verification is generally conducted by contracted officials as well as loan managers. So far accused had cheated more than 15 nationalized banks in last 2-3 years and caused loss of Rs. more than 2 crore to banks. They had procured luxurious cars and SUV of all the car companies i.e. Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Ford, Hyundai, Honda City and obtained Scorpio, Safari, Eco Sport, Swift Dzire, Swift, i-20, Honda City, Honda Amaze, Verna vehicles. Accused persons were clever enough and usually left no evidence except their photographs and signatures on application form, therefore, they were still at large.

It is interesting to note that though the accused persons did not complete their higher secondary schools, they were able to cheat the highly qualified bankers.

RECOVERY:

1. Tata Zest car No.DL-8CAL-2762 (complaint is pending at PS Paschim Vihar)
2. RC of Honda City car No.DL-4CAU-7939 (FIR No.164/15 u/s 420/468/471/120B IPC, PS Barakhamba Road)

LIST OF FINANCED VEHICLES AND BANK DETAILS:

Sl. No.	Number and Model of financed Car/SUV	Name of financer Bank	Linked with Case FIR No. and PS
	Honda City car No. DL-4CAU-7939, 2016	State Bank of India, Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan, Janpath	FIR No. 164/15 u/s 420/468/471/120B IPC PS Barakhamba Road
	Honda City car No. DL-4CAU-7298, 2016	State Bank of India, Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan, Janpath	FIR No. 164/15 u/s 420/468/471/120B IPC PS Barakhamba Road
	Swift ZDI No. DL-3CCE-5808, 2016	Syndicate Bank, Rajendra Nagar	-
	I-20 DL-12CJ-9051 2016	Bank of Baroda, Zamrud Pur, Delhi	-
	Scorpio, 2015	Punjab and Sind Bank, Rajender Nagar	FIR No.722/15 u/s 420/ 468/471/120B IPC PS Patel Nagar
	Tata Zest No. DL-8CAL-2762, 2015	IDBI Bank, Shalimar Bagh	-
	Swift, DL-6CP-5693, 2016	State Bank of Patiala, Sadar Bazar	FIR No. 148/16 u/s 420/406/468/34 IPC PS Sadar Bazar
	Swift Dzire, DL-8CAM-5833, 2016	Punjab & Sind Bank, Jahangir Puri	-
	Eco Sport No. DL-1CK-8552, 2016	Bharti Mahila Bank, Model Town	-
	I-20, DL-ICR-7429, 2016	BMW Finance company, Dwarka	-
	I-20, DL-1CR-8552, 2016	BMW Finance company, Dwarka	-
	Swift ZDI DL-9CAD-6529, 2015	Karur Vaisya Bank, Janak Puri	-
	Swift VDI, 2015	Syndicate Bank, Jwalaheri	FIR No. 366/16 u/s 420/406/468/34 IPC PS Paschim Vihar
	Swift VDI, 2015	Bank of India, Dwarka, Sector-10	-
	Swift VDI, 2015	Bank of India, Dwarka, Sector-10	-
	Tata Safari No. DL-1CR-7831	SBI, Moti Bagh	-
	Hyundai Verna No. 424, 2014	SBI, Raghubir Nagar	-
	Honda Amaze, 9519, 2016	HDFC Shalimar Bagh	-
	Swift Dzire DL-12CAJ-3619	SBI, Shalimar Bagh	-
	Scorpio No.9995, 2014	SBI, Raghubir Nagar	-
	Swift VDI, 2014	SBI, Shalimar Bagh	-

Details of rented residential addresses at which cars were got financed by the accused persons.

1. WV-176C, Pitam Pura.
2. A-1/228C, Paschim Vihar.
3. Sector-22, Rohini, Delhi.
4. 2nd Floor, Akshardham Appartment, Sector-19, Dwarka.
5. 365, Rishi Nagar, Rani Bagh.
6. 58, Shivaji Enclave, Rajouri Garden.
7. WZ-11A, Sant Garh, Gali No.13, Keshav Puram.
8. 90B, Ramesh Nagar, Moti Nagar.
9. H. No. 187, Pocket-4, Sector A-9, Narela.

Details of rented official addresses at which cars were got financed by accused persons.

1. Balaji Enterprises, DLF Building, Moti Nagar, Delhi
2. Jai Balaji Enterprises, 107, Laxmi Bazar, Vikas Nagar

INTERROGATION & PROFILE: -

During sustained interrogation, it has been revealed that accused Manoj Makhija is prime accused. Accused Manoj Makhija, his younger brother Amit Makhija, accused Gaurav Kapoor and other gang members have procured more than 20 financed vehicles so far in fake names, IDs and documents and never got arrested. Accused Gaurav Kapoor is friend of Makhija brothers for last 10-12 years. Accused Manoj Makhija, Amit Makhija and their associates Vikram Diwan @ Pankaj r/o Subhash Enclave, Shailender Dewan r/o Rohini, Paramjeet Singh @ Param r/o Chander Vihar, Bunti r/o Tajpur, Delhi, Balender Balyan r/o Shahdara, Pravesh Rana r/o Mukhmel Pur and others were running a gang and had procured costly cars/SUV and disposed off the vehicles to aspiring buyers and earned huge profit resulting huge loss to the exchequer of banks. Accused Manoj Makhija had created fake office in the name of doing business of LED bulbs whereas his brother Amit Makhija had created fake office in the name of business of supplying water bottles. Their businesses were totally eye-wash to cover-up their misdeeds.  

1. Accused Manoj Makhija @ Gagan Kumar @ Harish Gera has studied up-to 10th standard. His father was a fruit seller in Azadpur. He also joined this business but was not successful. He has no previous criminal involvement. He used to live a lavish life and spend huge amount of money on liquor and excursions. He used to change his addresses frequently to avoid apprehension by police.
2. Accused Amit Makhija @ Mohit @ Ravi has studied upto 8th standard. Like his brother, he also joined his father’s fruit selling business but was unsuccessful. He has no previous criminal involvement. He used to live a lavish life and spend huge amount of money on liquor and excursions. He used to change his addresses frequently to avoid apprehension by police.
3. Accused Gaurav Kapoor @ Pankaj Arora has studied upto 10th standard. He was earlier in the property business but left the work due to his bad habits. He is wanted in Case FIR No. 148/16, u/s 420/406/468/34 IPC, PS Sadar Bazar and proceedings u/s 83 CrPC have been completed against him. He was not arrested previously. He used to live a lavish life and spend huge amount of money.