Fake recovery agents hoodwink car-owners in Bangalore

Beware of recovery agents, for they can be crooks out to rob you of your car.
Fake recovery teams from finance companies are making merry at the cost of unsuspecting loan defaulters.

The city police said they have caught one such person, part of a two-member gang, who posed as recovery agents and allegedly took away vehicles of owners who had defaulted in repaying loans.

The arrested, identified as Arifulla Khan alias Arif Khan, 35, a resident of Minaajnagar, Kadirenahalli, Banashankari, is believed to be a former employee of Shriram Finance.

Khan and his friend Intiaz, a resident of Banashankari, were working as agents of Shriram Finance. Two years ago, they had quit the company and kept a copy of the list of people who had taken loan from the company but failed to repay in time.

Seven cars — two Hyundai Santros, two Tata Indicas, an Accent, an Opel and a Tata Sierra — worth `26 lakh have been recovered from Khan, said sub-inspector PG Naveen.

Some of the cars were kept in a shed in Khan’s house in Banashankari.

The police said Intiaz was yet to be arrested. Khan was produced into court and sent to jail.

Khan visited the houses of the people in the list he had taken from Shriram Finance and seized cars from the owners. The duo never showed their identity card, the police said. After some days of ‘recovery,’ they used to sell the cars in the city.

Khan was nabbed after the police received complaints from some people who had lost their cars. They told the police that Khan seized the cars for non-payment of loans even after they closed their loan accounts.

The DJ Halli police took Khan to their custody and after questioning he spilled the beans.