Posing as MNC official, man dupes bank in Gurugram of ₹2.8crore

A man posing as a human resources (HR) official with a leading multinational corporation duped the Gurugram branch of a bank of nearly ₹3 crore by getting credit cards issued against the names of non-existent employees, and taking out loans by fraudulent means, police officers aware of the matter said on Sunday.

Police are currently probing the case, and are investigating whether the suspect duped any other banks in the area using the same modus operandi, officers said.

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HT reached out to the bank in question, but officials there declined to remark on the matter. The multinational corporation did not comment.

Giving details of the case, investigators said that in December 2022, the suspect approached the Gurugram bank and identified himself as Sachin Kathuria, and claimed to be the HR head of the India unit of a multinational corporation. He told the bank that he wanted to open salary accounts for 38 employees who had recently joined the firm, said police officers.

Subsequently, the bank sent two executives to an address that Kathuria provided, where the executives met 38 individuals, saw their original KYC documents, and obtained self-attested photocopies of the KYC documents, following which the bank opened 38 salary accounts, said a police officer associated with the case.

After the accounts were opened, some 28 of the account holders availed credit cards, while three availed personal loans between December 2022 and June this year. The transactions done by the credit cards and the money loaned by the bank amounted to ₹2.8 crore, said investigators.

After the borrowers and credit card users failed to repay the bank, and neither they nor Sachin Kathuria could be reached on their contact numbers, the bank conducted an internal investigation, reviewed account transactions, and found that the money transferred into the 38 salary accounts was immediately withdrawn through debit cards.

Finding this suspicious, the bank reviewed the documents the account holders had submitted and found they were fake.

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“All the account holders were non-contactable. During a visit to their residential address listed in bank records, the addresses were found to be non-existent,” said Vikas Kaushik, assistant commissioner of police.

Based on a complaint submitted by the bank, the police conducted a preliminary investigation. They registered a first information report against Kathuria and unidentified others at the Sushant Lok police station on Friday under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).