Two more arrested in housing loan scam

CHANDIGARH: A day after the arrest of three persons including the mastermind of the housing loan scam, Rajinder Singh Kalsi, 56, who was recently suspended as manager of Punjab & Sind Bank, for swindling it of around Rs 20 crore, two more persons were arrested in this regard on Saturday.
The two arrested have been identified as Rajmani of Mohali and Prem Kumar of Sector 15, Chandigarh and both have been remanded to three days in police custody.The duo was arrested following the discloser of the prime accused, Kalsi, saying that both were working for him on a “hefty commission basis.” The investigation of the multi-crore fraud has been transferred to the economics offence wing (EOW) of the Chandigarh police. Kalsi along with two other accused, Karan Thakur and Pardeep, was arrested for swindling crores of rupees during his over one year long stint (between April, 2011 and October 16, 2012) at Punjab & Sindh Bank in Sector 24.
Police sources said accused Rajmani and Prem used to put their signatures on fake documents posing as loan seekers and in some of the documents, both were also shown as owners of fictitious properties, against which housing loans were obtained.
The agency on Saturday also summoned four clerical employees of Punjab and Sindh Bank, Sector 24 and recorded their statements in this regard.
Police sources said the EOW has also identified two properties of the mastermind Kalsi in the periphery of Chandigarh apart from his lavish house in Phase-III, Mohali. Sources said, “A huge portion of the swindled money has been invested in property, finance, besides shopping. And after mastermind Kalsi, accused Karan Thakur, a liquor contractor, is the second person, who has benefited the most from the swindled money.”
DSP (EOW) Anil Joshi said four cars were also found to be registered in the names of Kalsi’s kin. His four bank accounts have been found and the banks concerned have been requested to seize these accounts.
Police have also seized around 133 housing loan case files sanctioning these loans during Kalsi’s over one year tenure at the bank. All loan files were found to have fake documents.