The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Woman held on cheating charge

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Thursday, Aug 09, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Woman held on cheating charge

Staff Reporter

Hemalatha allegedly cheated two banks of Rs. 64 lakh

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

In police net: Hemalatha who was arrested on the charge of duping two banks, in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: The Ashoknagar police arrested a 27-year-old woman who allegedly cheated two banks of Rs. 64 lakh by fraudulently obtaining loans in the names of 13 women who were living in a paying guest hostel run by her.

The police said Hemalatha, who has passed her SSLC, has been running a paying guest hostel, Comfort Nest, near her house in BTM Layout for the past four years.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) B.N.S. Reddy told presspersons on Tuesday that using the photographs of 13 women who had stayed at the hostel earlier, Hemalatha created fake appointment orders, salary certificates and visiting cards in their names stating that they were employees of Wipro. By photocopy manipulation she created driving licences of these women for proof of address.

She even opened accounts in the names of these women in HDFC Bank and obtained debit cards for these account. Besides, she procured genuine PAN cards in their names from the Income Tax Department, he said.

Subsequently, Hemalatha approached the ICICI Bank and Citibank and got personal loans sanctioned in the names of these women on the strength of the fake documents and by forging their signatures. She ensured that the loans sanctioned from these banks were credited to the HDFC Bank accounts of these women. Using the debit cards, she withdrew money from these accounts through ATM counters, Mr. Reddy explained.

Hemalatha even paid loan instalments for a few months. When the dues started mounting, agents of Citibank came to the paying guest hostel for recovery. Hemalatha told them her guests had vacated the hostel and she did not know their whereabouts, the officer said.

Hemalatha had borrowed Rs. 39 lakh from ICICI Bank and Rs. 25 lakh from Citibank. The police arrested Hemalatha following a complaint by the Citibank officials.

System flaws

“The ICICI Bank learnt about the fraud only after we informed them. What has come out is only the tip of the iceberg. It appears that she has cheated several other banks too by exploiting certain flaws in the loan sanctioning process of the private banks, which outsource most the work,” Mr. Reddy told The Hindu.

The police seized from Hemalatha’s house blank papers and visiting cards with Wipro’s monogram, fake appointment orders and salary certificates of Wipro, 13 credit cards of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Standard Chartered, State Bank of India and Citibank, two cheque books and three PAN cards. The credit cards and fake appointment orders were in the names of R. Sheela, S. Roopa, V. Jayashree, Nitya Satish, K. Arathi, Vyshali, R. Anu, S. Sunitha and S. Hema. The police are looking for Suresh, who allegedly assisted Hemalatha in creating fake documents.

Hemalatha was paying a monthly rent of Rs. 27,000 for her house and Rs. 22,000 for the hostel building. She was leading a luxurious life by spending around Rs. 70,000 a month, Mr. Reddy said.

The arrest and seizure were done by a team comprising Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ulsoor Gate) B.B. Ashok Kumar, Ashoknagar Inspector Lokanath Kadri, sub inspectors H.K. Mahananda, Vijay Hadagali and Ayesha and constables B.M. Narayana and Shivaswamy.

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