15 arrested; Police suspect involvement of RTO officials 

Mysore/Mysuru: The City Police have busted a gang that adopted an unusual method of borrowing loans and cheating a finance company to the tune of Rs. 1,35,53,000  on heavy vehicles that do not exist. 

The Police have arrested 15 accused for the fraud, while many more, including RTO officials, are to be traced. 

The arrested have been booked for forgery, cheating and criminal breach of trust. The complaint was lodged by the Manager of Cholamandalam Finance Company in Devaraja Police Station limits and the fraud was carried out after creating fake documents, fake vehicle chassis number and other parameters to obtain loans from the finance company.

The finance company unearthed the scam when the accused started defaulting on repayment of loan. The company later carried out an investigation and found that it is a well-planned fraud racket. The accused have taken loans for more than 15 vehicles by forging documents. 

The arrested have been identified as C. Periyaswamy, Manju, M. Ganesh, Mahesh, William Rajkumar, Madeshan, Sathyavelu, Ajit Kumar, Antony, Anand Kumar, Prakash, R. Ashok Kumar, A. Manohar, Gurupadaswamy and K.S. Shanthakumar, all from Kollegal Taluk. While Manohar was an expert in changing and fabricating chassis numbers of all vehicles, Ashok Kumar prepared fake RC books and the Police suspect that there is involvement of certain officials from the Regional Transport Office (RTO). 

Investigation so far has revealed that the accused had prepared forged papers for the purchase of trucks and buses of TATA and Ashok Leyland companies. They also prepared forged general insurance papers for these vehicles and got them registered in RTOs. 

“Obtaining loans for such forged papers is not possible unless there is involvement of RTO officials. Not only Mysuru, the racket is spread to Bengaluru also,” said a Police officer. The accused had relations with RTO officers at different cities including Mysuru and Bengaluru, the Police said. 

Police said that the accused had taken different loans for vehicles of Ashok Leyland and TATA Motors. But later, it was found that the documents were fake and the vehicles were not even manufactured. Loan recovery manager of the finance company alerted the company manager and the case was booked. 

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic) M.S. Geetha Prasanna said that they have arrested 15 persons so far.

“The RTO offices were closed due to COVID and as such, it hampered the investigation. We are collecting documentary evidence now. As some of the accused in the racket are Government officers, we need substantiate proof to arrest them,” she said. 

Sources said that the Devaraja Police had raided the RTO office at Electronics City in Bengaluru and also the Central RTO Office to recover vital documents relating to the fraud. 

Also, in the preliminary investigation, the Police found that it is not required to take the vehicle physically to the RTO for registration. Most of the registration process is done online and the fraudsters took advantage of it. After generating a vehicle registration certificate (RC) on forged papers, the accused used it to show a resale. The gang would then approach the finance companies to borrow loans on forged papers.