A former employee of a private bank allegedly defrauded seven people of Rs 1.5 lakh by pretending to provide them with Covid assistance loans.
On Saturday, victim Dharmesh Sharma, a 47-year-old resident of Chanakyapuri, filed a complaint with Navrangpura police on behalf of himself and six others against accused Ramakant Sahu, a resident of Nikol who runs a financial consultancy office in the CG Road area.
Sharma, who owns a clock shop, said he met Sahu when the latter was a bank representative and gave him a credit card in May.
“In June, Sahu approached me again and informed me that he had resigned from his bank job.” He told me he was assisting those who had been affected financially by the Covid-19 pandemic in obtaining loans. He informed me that the government offered subsidised loans through the ‘Vajpayi Bankable Scheme,’ and that he could help me apply for one.
Sahu also approached Chanakyapuri’s Ashwin Mistry, Chandlodia’s Asaram Verma, Ghatlodia’s Chandrika Nishad, Saraspur’s Nitin Rathod and Zakir Qureshi, and Shahpur’s Murtuza Ahmed Shaikh. Sharma told police that “he duped them by getting them to pay processing fees for the loan.”
Before going into hiding on July 25, Sahu defrauded them of Rs 1.5 lakh. After that, the victims went to the police and filed a complaint against Sahu for cheating and breach of trust.