CBI to probe loan fraud using PM’S name

THE CBI has registered an FIR against unknown persons after receiving a complaint from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that alleged some persons could be duping the unsuspecting public to subscribe to fraudulent loan schemes, claiming these were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The incident came to light when a resident of Himachal Pradesh’s Solan approached the PMO and informed that he was cheated by a woman who said she was the processing officer of a loan scheme called the Trust Fund Loan Scheme.

Sources told The Indian Express that the CBI registered an FIR against unknown persons after it received a complaint from PMO Deputy Secretary Mayur Maheshwari. “Maheshwari sent a letter to the Joint Director of the CBI about a few months ago, but the case has been registered after the investigation officer, Prem Kumar Gautam, Superintendent posted with CBI, conducted a preliminary inquiry .... A case has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating) of the IPC and 66-D IT Act,” the source said.

Maheshwari said in the complaint, accessed by The Indian Express, that the PMO recently received a letter from Manjeet Singh, a BJP worker in Solan.

“Singh informed the PMO that he recently received a message from a woman who informed that PM Modi had launched the Trust Fund Loan Scheme in which people can take loans of Rs 1.5 crore. He responded and the woman approached him, impersonating as the processing officer of the scheme,” the source added.

Singh fell into the trap and she told him to deposit Rs 35,000 in accounts of a government bank. “He deposited it and was waiting. After some days, she again approached him and asked him to deposit around Rs 62,000. He then realised something was fishy and he had been cheated by her,” the source said.

“In her complaint, Maheshwari mentioned that a similar fraud occurred on August 24 last year where a man was cheated by the same modus-operandi in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad,” the source added.

Maheshwari said the modusoperandi of both the cases were similar the name of the PM was misused to extract money from people.