Central Crime Branch officials busted a fake e-bank guarantee racket and arrested a 45-year-old chartered accountant (CA) who was operating from Kuwait and duped many beneficiaries to the tune of ₹168 crore to secure loans and other benefits from banks.
The fraud came to light when National e-Governance Services Ltd. officially verifying e-bank guarantees detected 11 applicants to have submitted fake e-guarantees and filed a complaint with the Shivajinagar police.
Considering the ramification, the CCB cyber crime team took over the case and tracked down Ashish Roy, a CA from Uttar Pradesh, operating from Kuwait, to be the kingpin.
Ashish used to source the details of victims through his professional network, approach them on the pretext of helping them to get e-bank guarantees and uploaded the same in private banks to facilitate financial transactions and other benefits without much scrutiny. The accused had taken ₹5 crore commission for the service which according to an estimation incurred a financial loss to banks to the tune of ₹168 crore, a senior police officer said.
Initially the banks had filed a complaint against the 11 beneficiaries who were questioned by the CCB team before zeroing in on Ashish operating from Kuwait.
The CCB got a lookout circular issued against him and convinced his family members, from an Army background, to call him home citing an emergency situation. The accused was caught as soon as he landed at the airport.
The accused has now been taken into custody for a detailed investigation to ascertain his network and criminal background, Hazaresh Killedar, investigating officer said.
