Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank has involved itself in a major scam by disbursal of Rs 500 Crore worth fake loans. The people on whose names the loans were given were not aware of any such transactions in their accounts.
They were however sent the notices promptly that they had to pay back for the loans that they have not applied. The cooperative credit societies misused the details of the customers. The people who received the fake notices had met with the Economic Offences Wing but to no avail as they too were duped and have become the victims of the bank, who they finance.
Residents of Kurla, Ghatkopar and Andheri received several notices from the bank that they had to pay large sums of money that they had never loaned. One Shreeram Sapat, who resides in Ghatkopar said that he was utterly shocked to see that he received a notice asking him to pay back for the several loans in his name which ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 75,000. He approached the bank only to find that a fake ration card was used by someone to take the loans.
Avinash Joshi had a fake loan of Rs 3.75 lakh on his shoulder and he had been asked to pay Rs 75,000 by the bank. His documents were forged too to avail a loan.
An investigation revealed over 500 victims of the scam and over Rs 60 crore had already been disbursed but the sum according to sources is well over Rs. 500 crore.
The officials at Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank have admitted that they disbursed loans but they blame the scam on the credit societies. The credit societies had approached the banks with fake documents and names. There were a number of people who applied for loans and hence they didn't verify documents and addresses blindly going by the assurances from the societies. They too learned about the scam only after the borrowers never paid any money and complained that they never borrowed any money.
Rajvardhan, additional commissioner of EOW said that “We received several complaints. We understand that KYC (Know Your Customer) norms were not followed by the bank which most likely involves the bank officials' participation in the scam. We will take action shortly.”
(AW-Anil)
