Bengaluru police have busted a mega scam that cheated cab drivers struggling to pay their EMIs.
The scam was orchestrated by a gang of seven and involved at least one senior transport officer in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district.
The gang lured cab drivers who had purchased vehicles on bank loans and were struggling to pay the EMIs amid the pandemic.
The gang “purchased” the cabs by paying a certain amount to the owner and promising to pay the EMIs. Many cab owners happily let go of the vehicles in view of the slowing business. They heaved a sigh of relief as the banks stopped asking them to pay the EMIs. But this relief was short-lived.
In reality, the gang had cleverly used the loan moratorium announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hoodwink the cab owners. Before the moratorium ended, the gang forged vehicle documents and sold them in Anantapur.
Bengaluru police believe the gang had cheated more than 50 cab drivers. They have already recovered 48 of the cabs valued at Rs 4 crore.
Police got a whiff of the scam after Noor Ahmed, a cab driver from KG Halli, filed a complaint in November 2020. He told the police that one J Riyaz, 33, from Fraser Town, and his associates had “purchased” his cab by paying him Rs 60,000 and promising to pay the EMIs.
Ahmed said he realised the con when the bank asked him to pay the EMI after a few months.
S D Sharanappa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said Riyaz was a car dealer-cum-broker. He, along with car brokers Sheikh Muktiyar, and Inayat, gathered details of car owners defaulting on EMIs from the recovery agents of bank and finance companies.
They approached car owners on the pretext of buying vehicles. They paid them certain amount as down payment and promised to clear the pending dues. They sent the vehicle documents to V Vinod Kumar alias RTO Vinod, 32, of Anantapur, who took the help of RTO officials to create fake documents of the cars and sold them locally, said Sharanappa.
Acting on Ahmed’s complaint, police tracked down Riyaz, Muktiyar and Kumar, apart from four other suspects: Ramesh Naidu, 40, of Ramachandra Nagar, Narasimha Reddy, 35, T Prabhakar, 34, and Chakli Naresh, 32, all residents of villages in Anantapur district.
The arrests helped the police recover 48 cars in just three days — from December 11 to December 13, said a police officer who’s part of the investigation. Police are trying to trace three more suspects — Saleem, Zabih and Suhail.