Gang arrested for cheating finance companies

Hyderabad, March 23: The Jawaharnagar police has arrested a gang of 7 members here on Wednesday, for allegedly involved in duping private finance companies.

The suspects were identified as Dheeravath Shankar Naik (37), Gude Sudhakar (38), Md Salar Ismail (46), Varthya Ravi (39), Mohd Haji (45), Bodhas Bhanu Chander (28) and Gude Venkateshwar Rao (40).

According to police, The accused Shankar Naik,who belonged to nagaram village of Keesara Mandal had purchased a lorry from Shriram Transport Finance at Tarnaka for Rs 11 lakh. His friend Sudhakar had stood as a guarantor for the deal.

However, as Shankar could not pay the EMIs, they hatched a plan to dupe the company. Both, along with their associates, purchased an old lorry through an auction and brought it to a garage.

The gang dismantled the old lorry and removed its chassis and engine and kept it in the garage. Shankar then removed the chassis and engine of his new lorry and replaced it with those of the old lorry in order to avoid the finance company detecting the new lorry, said ACP Kushaiguda, Syed Rafeeq.

They were then using the new lorry with the old registration number, chassis number and engine number to avoid the finance company from seizing the vehicle, he said.

When they were in need of money, the gang again tried to do same thing while the vehicle with another finance company for Rs 4.75 lakh.

Early this month, Sudhakar purchased an Ashok Leyland truck from Automotive Manufacturers Private Limited at Chintalkunta in LB Nagar for Rs 24.50 lakh.

"He took the truck to his native place in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and kept it there. Later, he lodged a false complaint with Jawaharnagar police claiming the vehicle was stolen," said the ACP.

During investigation into the complaint the police smelt something fishy. On questioning them, they admitted to duping the companies, police said.