A man allegedly scammed several banks, and succeeded $Delhi Police has made an arrest of Rs 18 crore through fake property documents and impersonation, after evading arrest for nearly nine years, officials said on Saturday.
Sanjeev Dixit, alias Sanjay Sharma, 53, was arrested on Thursday in connection with a 2013 cheating and forgery case registered at the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) police station.
Police said Dixit had been on the run since 2017 after escaping from Uttar Pradesh police custody, and a Delhi court later declared him guilty. It was later found that he was in Tihar Jail in another criminal case.
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According to EOW, the case was registered based on a complaint filed by Usha Rani Sethi, who alleged that Dixit, along with his associates, fraudulently transferred her property in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar by executing a forged sale deed in February 2013.
Investigators found that the accused arranged for a woman to pose as the complainant before the sub-registrar’s office and used the PAN details of another person with the same name to complete the fraudulent transaction.
The forged sale deed was then used to create an equitable mortgage, enabling the accused to obtain loans and credit facilities from multiple banks, police said.
Fraud involves credit worth more than that $18 Crore, incl $10 crore from China Trust Commercial Bank, $5 Crores as cash credit, A $70 lakh car loan and another $Cash credit facilities worth Rs 3 lakh crore from other banks. Most of the loan accounts later turned into non-performing assets, causing huge losses to financial institutions, officials said.
The investigation also revealed that the accused appointed his partner as a tenant in the complainant’s property to gain access to the property details and facilitate the fraud. The money obtained from the banks was allegedly routed through shell companies and fake bank accounts before being withdrawn through cash withdrawals and personal expenses.
Despite repeated notices and searches, Dixit remained untraceable for years. After continuous technical monitoring, the police discovered that he had been placed in Tihar Jail in another criminal case. After a habeas corpus was issued by a Delhi court, he was formally arrested in this case as well on June 25.
The police described Dixit as a habitual economic criminal, with at least 12 criminal cases registered against him by the CBI and police in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Cases include fraud, forgery, corruption and criminal conspiracy.
