Loan fraud: Five held in Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon for cheating 43 teachers of Rs 10-12 cr

Kondagaon, Jul 9 (PTI) Five persons were arrested in Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon for alleged involvement in a loan fraud racket in which 43 government school teachers were cheated of nearly Rs 10-12 crore, a police official said on Thursday. Shivshankar Das (40), Dilip Kumar Soni (45), Virendra Tirkey (44), Shyamsundar Jangde (33) and Anshuman Singh (28) were arrested from Ambikapur, Jashpur and Sarangarh districts after a three-month investigation conducted jointly by Farasgaon and Keshkal police, he added. "The accused allegedly lured teachers by promising to arrange multiple personal loans from different banks. Victims were told they would receive 40 per cent of the sanctioned loan amount, while the remaining 60 per cent would be retained by the accused, who assured them the entire loan would be repaid through EMIs within two to three years," the official said. The accused allegedly obtained loans simultaneously from various banks using salary slips, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and other documents, and in some cases, fake Aadhaar cards with altered addresses were allegedly prepared and used to facilitate the loans, the official said. Four separate FIRs were registered at Farasgaon and Keshkal police stations after teachers from Farasgaon, Badedongar, Keshkal and nearby areas alleged they had been cheated of crores of rupees through the scheme. A special investigation team , constituted under the supervision of Kondagaon Superintendent of Police Pankaj Chandra and led by SDOPs Abhinav Upadhyay and Arun Netam, analysed bank accounts, loan documents and fund transfers before tracing the accused through technical surveillance. "The accused allegedly operated the racket with the help of other associates and are suspected to have targeted teachers in different parts of the district over the past several years. Mobile phones, laptops, desktop computers, bank passbooks, cheque books, ATM cards, diaries and registers were seized during the operation," he said. Further investigation is underway to identify other persons involved in the racket, including suspected loan agents and those who may have facilitated the fraudulent transactions, the official informed. PTI COR BNM