Thane: Police in Maharashtra’s Thane district have initiated an investigation into an alleged large-scale financial fraud involving the misuse of identity documents to carry out transactions worth around ₹35 crore, officials said on Thursday.
According to the police, the accused, identified as Salma Sayyed, along with her associates, allegedly collected Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, photographs and other personal documents of job aspirants over the past one-and-a-half years. The documents were taken under the pretext of offering lucrative employment opportunities.
Investigators said the identity papers were later misused to forge signatures and fraudulently create firms and bank accounts without the victims’ knowledge. In one such case, a company named ‘Jaljyoti Enterprises’ was registered in the name of a man who was unaware of the development. Current accounts were opened using his identity, through which transactions amounting to nearly ₹35 crore were routed.
The case came to light after the 27-year-old man, a resident of Ambernath, approached the police upon discovering that his identity documents had been misused. During the probe, police found that similar companies had also been opened in the names of other victims, leading to massive financial transactions.
Police officials said efforts are underway to ascertain the full scale of the fraud and identify all individuals involved in the racket. Further investigation is ongoing.
