Guruvayur: Despite stringent identity and income scrutiny banks are still being duped by smart fraudsters. Daring scamsters don't even take cover in the virtual world but still step into the nearest bank to defraud them after completing due formalities.
A car loan racket operated by a mother-son duo under which several banks were swindled crores of rupees has been busted by the police here in Kerala. Interestingly, the son posed as an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer based in Kashmir while availing the loans and his mother claimed to be an assistant public information officer!
Shyamala Venugopal (58) has been arrested. Her son Vipin Karthik (29) is at large.
Shyamala was nabbed from a rented apartment at Bilathikulam in Kozhikode. She is originally from Kuniyil, Manalvattom at Tiruvangad in Thalassery.
When the police surrounded the house to arrest the duo, Vipin managed to flee from the spot and escape. However, his mother was picked up.
The duo had managed to purchase 28 cars availing loans from several banks. The cars were likely resold, police said.
Police sources say 12 cars were bought duping banks in Guruvayur alone, and 11 of them were sold to others. The other 16 cars were bought on loans from Nadapuram, Thalassery, Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kalamassery, Ernakulam, Koyilandy and Vadakara by the mother and son and resold.
Details regarding these transactions were obtained by the police from Vipin’s diary. Meanwhile, the police seized one car and a Bullet motorcycle from the duo.
Modus operandi
The racketeers opened a bank account and submitted an Aadhaar card bearing the address of their Bilathikulam flat. While applying for the car loan, a fake salary certificate and a photo of Vipin in an IPS officer’s uniform were produced.
Along with it, the suspects showed a doctored bank statement which showed a huge balance.
The police smelt a rat after Vipin showed up in his fake police uniform at the Sree Krishna Temple, Guruvayur, and the police stations in the area. Moreover, he began making recommendations to the police personnel.
Another fraud
Syamala and Vipin are accused of another case of cheating too. According to the manager of Indian Overseas Bank, Guruvayur branch, the duo had defrauded him of Rs 25 lakh and 95 sovereigns of gold. The money and gold were given by the manager on several occasions after Syamala deceived him into believing that Vipin was a cancer patient.
