The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai Crime Branch has uncovered a large-scale loan fraud, arresting two key members of a bogus finance company. The accused, Mohammed Dawood, also known as Satish Chandrasekar (32), and Thiru Vijaykumar (47), both hailing from Tamil Nadu, are alleged to have extorted substantial sums of money as processing fees from customers, promising them massive loans that never materialized.
The arrests stemmed from a complaint filed by 48-year-old Mumbai businessman, Manoj Poddar, who claimed he was defrauded of Rs 1 crore while attempting to secure a Rs 20 crore loan from the fraudulent company. Poddar alleged that he was asked to pay Rs 96 lakh in processing fees for a loan that was purportedly offered at a low interest rate.
The Crime Branch revealed that the scam involved a gang operating from Mumbai and Chennai, who used forged documents, fake identities, and fraudulent email accounts to dupe victims. To further their scheme, the gang rented a bungalow in Chennai where they lured potential victims like Poddar into the scam. Once the victims made the payments, the money was quickly transferred to various bank accounts and withdrawn in cash to avoid detection.
The investigation has revealed that the gang had targeted between 25 and 35 individuals across several states, including Delhi, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The total amount defrauded is still being determined, but authorities have already arrested other members of the gang, including Karthik Ravikumar , Vicky Durairaj Naykar, and Narasimhan Ramdas.
