Gang that duped banks using forged documents busted, 4 held: UP STF

With the arrest of four men, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang that duped multiple banks of crores of rupees by taking loans and credit cards on forged identities, officials said. The four accused, including the gang's kingpin, were held from Phase 3 area here around 12 pm by the Noida unit of the STF, they said.

"The gang had floated multiple companies and created employees which were non-existent using forged documents like Aadhaar, PAN etc. Using these identities, they had taken loans from various banks and applied for credit cards also," said deputy superintendent of police, STF, Raj Kumar Mishra. "They would apply for car and personal loans also using these identities and vanish after receiving the money. They would pay only one or two EMIs. In recent times, they had taken loans of Rs 2 crore from ICICI Bank and Rs 10 lakh from YES Bank," he said.

The gang has used the same modus operandi to defraud multiple banks and finance companies and around 20 FIRs have been registered in similar cases in Noida, the DSP said. "So far 56 of their bank accounts have been traced. Two of them with Rs 22 lakh have been frozen and action is underway for others," Mishra said.

Those arrested have been identified as gang kingpin Manoj Kumar Thakur (28), Sanjay Kumar Thakur (27), Animesh Kumar Thakur (25). All of them are brothers. The fourth accused has been identified as Ajit Sharma (30), according to the STF. All four hail from Bihar, it said.

The agency said 42 PAN cards, eight Aadhaar cards, 24 voter ID cards, 21 SIM cards, 21 bank passbooks, 44 cheque books, 56 credit or debit cards, 30 identity cards for "employees" of their fake companies, 35 salary slips, 25 mobile phones, etc. were recovered from their possession. "The STF also seized a Nepali passport in the name of Animesh Kumar Thakur, two Nepali citizenship certificates, Nepalese currency worth Rs 60,000 and impounded three cars and a motorcycle from them," Mishra said.

They have been booked for fraud and forgery of documents, he said, adding that further proceedings are being carried out by the Phase 3 police station in Noida.