Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Many banks duped by a gang of scamsters, a developer badly cheated' that was published in Newsband

Many banks duped by a gang of scamsters, a developer badly cheated

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Scamsters have created havoc in Navi Mumbai. Banks are mostly targeted by these scamsters and hence all the banks in Navi Mumbai have found the necessity to be extremely alert every moment. But here is a unique case. A group of scamsters targeted a Navi Mumbai based developer and a number of banks and by taking fake housing loans duped them to the tune of at least Rs 5 crore.

These members of the gangs first paid the initial booking amounts and bought houses in Lilavati building in Kharghar. They then made the duplicates of the original agreements with the developer, after which they applied at around 15 banks for loans. The loans were sanctioned after which these scamsters opened fake accounts in developer’s name and withdrew the money.

It took some time for the officials of these banks to realize that the account opened by these individuals were fake. They immediately contacted the police and lodged complaints against the scamsters. An in-depth investigation was carried out. Four FIRS have been registered in different Navi Mumbai police stations.

The builder who was victim of the scam is Rohit Zaveri He is the partner in Sweet Home Builders and Developers. He is a civil engineer and has been in the construction business for 37 years. It was his identity which was faked to open bank accounts.

He was approached by five persons at different times and they booked one flat each. They paid the booking amount after which the registration of the agreement was done. All that was left for them to do was they had to pay the balance amount for which they were to apply for home loans. But they disappeared after that.

Zaveri came to know from one of the banks that he was being cheated by a buyer whose name was Anil Pande. It seems that Pande had stopped paying the EMIs. It was found that Pande had made the duplicate of the registration document with government stamps and faked Zaveri’s signature. With the help of this fake document, he obtained loans from at least five banks. The cheques were issued in the name of the developer. He opened fake accounts in Zaveri’s name. He also made bogus PAN cards in Zaveri’s name, but with someone else’s photograph.

The home loan cheques were deposited in the fake bank accounts and the scamsters cleared out the accounts in the next few days.

These scamsters had targeted at least 15 banks and duped them to the tune of above Rs 5 crore.

Pande and four other customers, who booked houses in Zaveri’s building have indulged in similar scams.

Two FIRs are registered at Kharghar Police station. It is become clear that a big gang is involved in this major scam. The police are trying to trace as to who is Pande. Zaveri had to record his statement in many police stations. He personally lodged a complaint against the scamsters at NRI Seawoods Police Station. The police registered criminal cases of impersonating and forgery.  

The police are trying to go to the root of this case and other builders are become very cautious while selling houses to the customers. They are now insisting that the buyers give maximum details about themselves before making any kind of agreement with them.