Ex-manager of home loan firm held for cheating

A 48-year-old former manager of a housing finance company, wanted in 35 cases of cheating and for duping his employer of Rs 1.5 crore by disbursing loans to non-existent people, was arrested from Bangalore, police said today.
Vishwanath Tantri, who hails from Bangalore, was apprehended om March 29 following investigations into a complaint filed by Maharishi Housing Development Finance Corporation where he allegedly duped the company by extending housing loans to a large number of non-existent people, Joint Commissioner of Police (EoW) Sandeep Goel said.
Tantri, allegedly involved in 35 cases, was declared proclaimed offender in eight cases.
The company claimed that from 1997 to 2005, Tantri, who was manager of its Bangalore branch, allegedly gave loans to a large number of people but later it was found that the properties against which the loans were availed were non existent and the guarantors also were not traceable.

"After an internal enquiry, MHDFC got a total of 36 FIRs registered in Sarita Vihar police station on Court direction in November 2006 and subsequently all cases were transferred to EOW in May 2009 for further investigations," Goel said.
During investigations, he said the documents related to loans, submitted by borrowers to the complainant, were collected.

"Glaring and major discrepancies were found in the application forms as well as supporting documents attached for the purpose of availing the loans.
Many of the documents including salary slips of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), physical verification certificates, property papers and verification certificates from Tehsildars were found to be fabricated and forged.

"Investigations revealed that many loans were disbursed to non-existing persons, fake employees of BEML and in the names of some existing persons too who were not even aware that loans had been disbursed in their names. The entire scam were encompassed in a web of deceit and an endless trail of fake and non-existent papers and persons," he said.