One of the accused was hiding at a rented place in Kuvempunagar, Mysuru 

Bengaluru/Mysuru: The Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have arrested two persons for masquerading as builders and cheating home buyers. One of the accused was picked up last evening from his hideout at Kuvempunagar in Mysuru. He had rented a home in Kuvempunagar and was hiding there. 

The accused have been identified as 34-year-old Manjunath and 37-year-old Ranganath. While Ranganath was arrested in Bengaluru, Manjunath was apprehended from Mysuru. The accused allegedly cheated prospective home buyers by transferring their loans to their own accounts.

They would take potential buyers to under-construction apartment blocks in Bengaluru claiming they were the builders and offer to help them get bank loans. Later they took personal and bank details from gullible buyers and used that information to avail of bank loans up to Rs. 20 crore in their names. Once loans were sanctioned, the accused would siphon off the money creating fake documents. 

The accused duped many nationalised and private banks by submitting KYC documents of the buyers and fake documents of the property they claimed to have been developing, said Ravi Kumar, DCP (Crime) Bengaluru. The potential buyers were not aware that loans had been taken in their names.

“The banks that were duped cleared these loans without verifying the property or following due procedure. It is surprising that the banks have cleared the loans without verification. We have realised that over five to six more persons including some bank employees are involved in the racket and they will be arrested soon,” DCP Kumar added.

The scam came to light recently when a businessman, S. Ravi Kumar was approached by a nationalised bank officials informing him that a home loan had been taken in his name and was asked to pay the dues. As he had not taken any loan from the bank, he approached the Police.

The CCB tracked down Manjunath and Ranganath. It came to light that the accused had repeated this scam multiple times and taken loans in other people’s names. 

The Police have also recovered Audi car, a Jeep Compass SUV from the duo. Police said the accused were working as agents for executives of a private bank in loan section. Using their expertise and contacts with the bank officials, the duo colluded and lured buyers.