Man arrested from Howrah for duping people on pretext of providing loans

Kolkata: Police arrested a middle-aged man from Bally in Howrah on charges of cheating people for assuring them of getting loans from nationalised banks within just four days.

Police said the person, Soumen Bagchi, is being remanded to police custody till May 5 after he was produced before a city court.

It was in the first week of April, when one Kartik Chandra Dey had lodged a complaint with the Burabazar police station alleging that Rs 30,000 was withdrawn from his bank account in Burabazar branch of a nationalised bank.

Police initiated a probe and came to know from the complainant that he had got a cell phone number from an advertisement near Sealdah Station. It was stated in the advertisement that it would be possible to ensure a loan from nationalized bank within four days. He was in a desperate need for money and dialed the number.

He was directed to keep photocopies of his PAN card, voter's identity card and two blank cheques ready at home and a representative will visit his house to collect the same. Next day, a youth went to his house and asked him to sign a loan application and collected the other related documents.

The next day Dey found that Rs 30,000 was withdrawn from his bank account and he lodged a complaint with the police.

Based on the allegation, a woman civil volunteer contacted the person posing as a person who needs a loan and finally reached the prime accused, Bagchi. Police had followed a youth, who had collected the documents from the woman civil volunteer, who went to Bally in Howrah to handover the documents to Bagchi. Investigation revealed that Bagchi used to recruit unemployed youth assuring a monthly salary of Rs 9,000. He used to send the same youth to withdraw the money using cheques with forged signatures done by Bagchi.