Forgery racket unearthed after HDFC Bank finds 33 accounts with 2 common pictures

New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS) The IFSO unit of Delhi Police's Special Cell has busted a gang of cheats who were engaged in duping the HDFC Bank by opening accounts on the basis of forged documents, and arrested two people in this connection, police said on Wednesday.

The two arrested were identified as Navneet Prajapati and Somnath Prajapati.

Of the two accused, Navneet Prajapati was already in judicial custody and then also arrested in the fake passport case of a relative of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, IFSO-Special Cell, K.P.S. Malhotra said a complaint from the bank's Credit Control & Intelligence Department was received, wherein, it was alleged that during scrutiny of the suspicious bank accounts, they had found common photographs and signatures in 35 different saving bank accounts with different names and altogether total 2 common photos have been observed in 33 accounts.

"Further, it was observed that for saving accounts opened digitally, 12 accounts were processed with digital Aadhar verification as per laid down process and guidelines, however, a photograph of one individual was found in the all 12 accounts," he said.

According to the DCP, the accused persons had availed multiple credit facilities and products i.e., credit cards, DCEMI, PL2CC/Jumbo Loan, two-wheeler loan, personal loan, and auto loan and caused wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 1.26 crore to the bank.

A case under appropriate sections of law was registered by the police and an investigation was initiated.

During the course of investigation, the official said, an extensive analysis of the financial trail and CDR was carried out and through the analysis, it was found that the accused persons were operating from Tughlakabad and Dwarka areas.

On July 28, acting on specific information, the police conducted a raid and accused, Somnath Prajapati, was apprehended. During interrogation, he confessed his involvement in the offence and disclosed that he, along with his maternal uncle Navneet Prajapati, is engaged in creating fake documents especially Aadhar cards and then opening bank accounts.

Through the bank accounts, they availed personal loan, auto loan, credit card and DCEMI facility and never repaid the loan.

"It was revealed that his maternal uncle Naveneet Prajapati is running in judicial custody in some other case for a forgery," the official said, adding Navneet was also taken on police custody remand.

During the sustained interrogation and confrontation with each other, they disclosed that they were running an Aadhaar Updation Centre using the ID some other agent that was authorised by UIDAI.

"To login in UIDAI, they were using silicon fingerprints and print out of the iris scan of the authorised agent. Whenever any illiterate came to them for any Aadhaar updation, N Prajapati captured the biometrics of that person but updated the photograph and address as suitable to him," the official said.

After Covid, when everything went online, they started opening bank accounts through online mode, in which the account holder credentials were verified through the API integrated with the Aadhaar database.

"They had already updated the photograph and address in the database fraudulently. When the bank's API verifies the details provided by them, the details matched and the account gets opened without any physical verification or intervention," the official added.