Hyderabad: Sleuths of the Commissioner’s Task Force, Central Zone Team busted a racket and apprehended five youth for cheating finance companies by purchasing bikes on finance with fake ID proofs.
They used to pay a small amount to bike showrooms and sell the bikes to needy customers without registration. Officials seized 32 bikes from them, apart from 22 having original registration certificates. They also seized finance application forms and temporary registration documents of about 200 bikes.
The arrested were identified as Syed Wajid Ali, 35, an RTA agent, and his associates Mohd Imran, 19, a student from Vattapally, Syed Rabbani, 19, Shahid Ali, 23, and Shaik Ibrahim , 21, police said.
“Syed Wajid Ali has been working as an RTA agent at Bahadurpura RTA Office for over 15 years and has an idea about vehicle finance. He then hatched a plan to cheat finance companies along with his associates,” said DCP, Commissioner’s Task Force, P. Radhakrishna Rao.
Explaining about their modus operandi, the DCP said that they initially targeted low income groups. Mohd Imran, Syed Rabbani, Shahid Ali and Shaik Ibrahim were the ones who made people believe them by spinning concocted stories and offering them monetary benefits (Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000) in return for their ID proofs. They then purchase vehicles on their names, obtain their signatures and get their signatures on cheques.
“Wajid then sells the bikes to third parties for an amount less than the market price. In the process, they invest Rs 20,000 and gain Rs 20,000 illegally,” the police said.
The third party uses the bike regularly without proper registration and the victims who shared ID proofs receive calls from the loan lending firms to pay EMI as the vehicle is taken on their name. In this scam, the gang took maximum vehicles from Maximus Motorcycles and Scooters Pvt. Ltd in Bahadurpura. So far, they have taken about 100-120 vehicles on finance and sold them to third party buyers without any registration. In the entire process the Finance companies executives and employees colluded with the men and took percentage commission on each vehicle” said the official.
The accused gang, along with seized property, were handed Bahadurpura police for further investigation.
