2 held for cheating private bank of Rs 9 crore using forged documents EOW

New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two persons, a direct selling agent (DSA) and a chartered accountant (CA), for allegedly cheating a private bank of Rs 9 crore by using forged documents to secure loans, an official said on Sunday.
     The accused, identified as Rishi Chhabra (46) and Himanshu Rastogi (33), were formally arrested on May 9 in connection with an FIR registered in April 2022, the EOW said in a statement.
     Both have been granted anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court.
     The complaint was filed by an authorised representative of the private bank, who alleged that between March 2020 and March 2021, multiple loan files processed by a then credit manager, Anshul Ahuja, were found to contain fabricated documents, read the statement.
     Upon internal audit, forged GST returns were found in 71 cases and fake bank account statements were detected in 39 files. Investigations revealed that Ahuja, already under arrest since June 2024, had colluded with Chhabra and Rastogi to process loans for ineligible applicants, it read.
     "Chhabra, the DSA, provided client leads to Rastogi, who prepared manipulated financial reports. These documents were then routed through Ahuja for loan approvals," read the statement, adding that the accused took large commissions from the disbursed loan amounts and shared them among themselves.
     Most of the loans were declared non-performing assets (NPAs) after borrowers failed to repay the EMIs, resulting in a wrongful loss of Rs 9 crore to the bank, police said.
     The investigation found that the accused had deliberately inflated the borrowers financial credibility to secure higher loan amounts despite poor CIBIL scores.
     Further probe into the financial trail and involvement of other suspects is underway, they said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)