Noida, Jul 4 (PTI) With the arrest of three persons, the Noida police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in duping people of crores of rupees on the pretext of providing them loans under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojna and other schemes.

The gang used social media to advertise its schemes and also had started a call centre located in the industrial hub of Sector 63 in the city. One of the arrestees is a BTech graduate, while the other is a BCom graduate and their third partner is a Class 12 pass, a senior police officer said.

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The Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojna (PMMY) is a scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April, 2015 for providing loans up to Rs 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small or micro enterprises. These loans are classified as MUDRA loans under PMMY.

“The bogus call centre has been busted by officials of Sector 63 police station and three suspects have been arrested. They advertised schemes on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and when any interested person contacted them, they would demand money on pretext of various charges to get their loan approved,” DCP (Central Noida) Anil Kumar Yadav said.

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“The bank accounts used by the gang would be borrowed accounts or those they took control of fraudulently. Forged Aadhaar cards and PAN cards were used for opening some of these bank accounts,” Yadav told reporters.

Police identified the accused as Deepak Kumar, Vikas Singh, and Shahrukh – all three currently residing in adjoining Ghaziabad district.

The accused started duping people after they lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yadav said.

“They worked from their flat in Ghaziabad which was bought by them using the ill-gotten money. They have purchased one more flat using the money of crime. So far, this gang has cheated hundreds of gullible people to the tune of crores of rupees using this method,” the DCP said.

The police said they have seized Rs 5,13,000 in cash, one laptop, six mobile phones, 32 forged loan approval letters, ATM cards, two scooters, one motorcycle, and computer-related items from the gang's possession.

Further detailed investigation into their criminal history, financial transactions, etc., is underway, DCP Yadav said.

An FIR has been lodged against them at Sector 63 police station under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all related to forgery), 34 (act done by several persons with common intention), and under provisions of the Information Technology Act, the police added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)