The Crime Branch is likely to question officers in the I-T department who cleared the PAN applications.

On March 7, Unit 1 of the Crime Branch arrested Kalpendu Bhumesh Vaidya (37) and Lata Lalchand Rijwani (44). Next day, they arrested a third accused identified as Devang Rameshchandra Rawal (36). All three have been booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation, and forgery, and have been remanded to police custody till March 17.

“Vaidya and Rijwani posed as a married couple, and used forged documents to obtain personal loans from various banks in the city. They obtained PAN cards under the names Gurmeet Valiya and Ameesha G Valiya from the I-T office at Bandra Kurla Complex, by submitting forged documents,” said Senior Police Inspector, Ramesh Mahale, of Crime Branch Unit 1.

“The accused were issued PAN cards under bogus names, which is a serious matter. We are investigating the case thoroughly, and all angles will be probed,” Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Rakesh Maria told Newsline.

“We will question officers of the I-T department who cleared their applications. They (the accused) also bought three cars, now seized by the police, by obtaining loans using forged documents,” said Mahale.

The police have recovered 13 credit and debit cards from the accused, along with two Tata Indica cars and a Maruti Alto, all worth Rs 10 lakh.

“Vaidya is a B Com graduate and completed an MBA course in 1993. After that he worked for some time as an executive in a leading bank, and is currently unemployed. Rijwani, his associate, is also unemployed. Together, they used the help of Rawal, who forged documents for them. Rawal was a recovery agent for an international bank, and knows the loan application procedure very well,” said Mahale.