Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has uncovered a ₹2.40 crore scam involving fraudulent loans issued in the name of fake Konkan Railway employees. The key accused in the case is former chairman of the Konkan Railway Credit Society Abhijeet Deshmukh, who was arrested on Wednesday.
According to EOW officials, Deshmukh, in collusion with a few employees of the credit society, created fake identities for 48 individuals and used them to secure personal loans from New India Bank. The scam, which took place between 2020 and 2023, was meticulously executed by fabricating documents that falsely showed the loan applicants as Konkan Railway employees.
Investigators revealed that each fake borrower received a loan of ₹5 lakh, amounting to a total of ₹2.40 crore disbursed by the bank. These funds were then misused by Deshmukh and his associates for personal gain. EOW officials confirmed that a portion of the funds was diverted to Deshmukh’s family members and relatives.
Misuse of Employees’ Salary Accounts:
The investigation found that a 2018 agreement between New India Bank and the Konkan Railway Credit Society allowed loan disbursement after verifying the borrower’s employment status. However, Deshmukh, who was the chairman at the time, abused this agreement and bypassed the verification process.
The fraud extended to manipulating salary deductions. EMI payments for the fake loans were made using funds diverted from the salary deductions of genuine Konkan Railway employees into a common account. This account was then used to repay the fake borrowers’ EMIs, helping Deshmukh avoid immediate detection.
List of Fake Borrowers:
The EOW has identified all 48 individuals used in the loan fraud, including Sushil Chindarkar, Anand Deshmukh, Ketan Warawadekar, Sunita Patil, Ramesh Patil, Tanvi Kundalkar, Siddhesh Kudalkar, Vivek Kudalkar, Sachin More, Sheetal Deshmukh, Priyesh Morajkar, Priyanka Morajkar, Kedar Tendulkar, Rohan Madle, Akhilesh Kumar Dubey, Pooja Talekar, Kailash Kondar, Praveen, Periyasami, Santhi Periyasami, Gangadhar Hanumane, Dheeraj Singh Vyas, Arvind Pundge, Shivaji Shinde, Sai More, Savita Kadam, Sagar Kudalkar, Sanket Thakur, Uday Gawde, Narayan Parab, Sanjeev Pawar, Dattatraya Wajaratkar, Shailesh Shetkar, Jitendra Wajaratkar, Ravindra Mahajan, Prathamesh Karbele, Vishal Yadav, Rupesh Naik, Asif Siraj, Nazim Khan, Shubham Ingle, Shahrukh Khan Pathan, Prakash Lad, Mahesh Umbrajkar, Vijay Salvi, Dattaprasad Tandel, Vijay Rane, and Sakharam Palekar.
The EOW is currently identifying and interrogating other employees from the credit society who may have assisted in the fraud. Both New India Bank and the Konkan Railway Credit Society have incurred financial losses due to the scam.
