CA, DSA held for ₹9 cr ICICI bank loan fraud

NEW DELHI: The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police has arrested two individuals, including a Chartered Accountant and a Direct Selling Agent (DSA), for allegedly defrauding ICICI Bank of Rs 9 crore through a complex scheme involving forged documents and fraudulent loan approvals.

The police were informed about the fraud through a complaint registered by the ICICI Bank’s representative at the Economic Offenses Wing.

The accused were identified as Rishi Chhabra (46), son of Late Sudesh Kumar Chhabra, a resident of Geeta Colony, New Delhi, and Himanshu Rastogi (33), son of Deepak Rastogi, a resident of East Azad Nagar, Delhi & Bihari Colony Extn., Shahdara, Delhi.

According to the police, the arrests were made following a complaint filed by Vivek Singh, an authorised representative of ICICI Bank, based at Videocon Tower, Jhandewalan Extension.

According to the complaint, internal scrutiny revealed that Anshul Ahuja, a former credit manager at the bank, processed a significant number of delinquent Business Instalment Loan (BIL) accounts. A detailed review of loan files appraised by Ahuja between March 2020 and March 2021 exposed fabrication in at least 72 cases.

Among these, 71 files contained forged GST returns, and 39 files included manipulated bank statements.

Upon interrogation, Ahuja confessed to receiving loan applicant leads from CA Himanshu Rastogi. Ineligible borrowers were allegedly instructed to submit falsified financial documents, which were then used to fraudulently secure large business loans.

The sanctioned amounts were disbursed to these applicants, most of whom defaulted, causing the loans to be classified as non-performing assets (NPAs).