Citibank, HSBC, ICICI, HDFC and others duped of 8 crores, 2 caught

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) After four years of seamless operation in duping several multinational banks to the tune of Rs eight crores, law finally caught up with racket kingpin Sarabjit following a month-long investigation.

A Class VIII dropout, Sarabjit Singh was caught on March 6 from his South Delhi's Defence Colony office -- fourth in the series of dubious ones floated to extract loans from banks -- after the Citibank made a complaint to this effect, DCP (New Delhi) Anand Mohan told mediapersons.

''More than 133 credit/debit cards of various banks, 138 PAN cards, 384 cheque books, 17 mobile phones, 19 SIM cards, 43 fake driving licences and 1,134 photographs of unknown people besides several computers and laptops were seized from his possession.'' While the Citibank alone was duped of two crore and HSBC 2.7 crore, ICICI was cheated of 1.34 crore and HDFC of Rs 40 lakh. Other banks were also defrauded of nearly two crore, he said.

''One of his associates Gurdeep alias Mandeep was also arrested along with Sarabjit who had created a rouge of leading a multinational firm with plush offices in posh areas and putting up his 'managers' in upscale localities to give the impression of a hi-fi institution.'' Sarabjit, who was fond of a lavish lifestyle and had a cavalcade of expensive cars, would float fake companies, employ people and give them a 'grand' facade and take loans from banks under various fictitious names, posing as employees of companies whose names sounded like that of multi-nationals, explained the DCP.

''We are looking into the affair minutely and more arrests are likely as the role of his employees is being investigated.'' Sarabjit's past record shows that he was a bad character of Kirti Nagar area of West Delhi involved in 27 cases of auto theft who later shifted his base to Mumbai to work with his father involved in supplies to airlines. He, however, returned after his father incurred losses following the 9/11 incident.

UNI