Three arrested for stealing data and procuring loans

Crime branch's property cell has arrested three persons for stealing data from a finance company's portal and procuring loans by submitting fake documents in the bank. Accused trio are believed to have cheated more than 22 people of Rs 32.38 lakh in the span of last eight months.

A former employee of a Lalbaug-based electronic showroom, Rameez Shaikh, had access to the bank details of all customers of Bajaj Finance Company. After Shaikh resigned from the showroom, the username and password of the showroom’s system was unchanged. Shaikh took disadvantage of the access and stole the customers’ details available on the company’s web portal to procure loans in their name from leading national banks. After getting the loan approvals, Shaikh purchased high-end electronics from an online shopping portal.

Police said when many complaints were reported with a similar modus operandi, police connected the dots and realised all victims were Bajaj Finance Company’s customers. Acting on the information, police approached the finance company and learned Shaikh was still accessing the showroom’s system to scour for victims.

Police then laid a trap in Badlapur, Kalyan, Thane and Navi Mumbai to nab the accused trio. After police received a tip-off about Shaikh’s latest transaction from the bank account, he was apprehended from his residence in Kalyan. Further investigation revealed Shaikh had two accomplices in the crime and had cheated more than 22 people of Rs 32.38 lakh.

Dilip Sawant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) said, “The accused have cheating cases registered against them in five police stations in the city. The number of cases is expected to rise as the investigation proceeds.”