In what may be termed as the biggest financial fraud not only in Mizoram, but the entire Northeast, Mizoram police have arrested 11 people, including seven outsiders or non-local residents, for orchestrating fraudulent activities amounting to Rs. 150 crore against a private non-banking financial company, a top police officer said on Friday.

Five local car dealers were also involved in the scam that caused a huge loss to the company, Mizoram Director General of Police (DGP) Anil Shukla said.

He said that the incident came to light on March 20 when Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Limited (MMFSL) lodged a complaint at Aizawl police station against its Mizoram area business manager Jakir Hussain (41), a resident of Tezpur in Assam, for allegedly orchestrating a fraud during the disbursement of vehicle loan.

Another case was registered on March 29 at the Crime and Economics Offence police station in Aizawl based on the complaint filed by the company, he said.

MMDSL primarily deals in the disbursement of vehicle loans.

Subsequently, an 11-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police, CID Lalhuliana Fanai exposed the fraud that has been operating for the last four years commencing from 2020, Shukla said.

He said that the residence of Hussain, the kingpin in the financial fraud, was raided by the SIT on March 29 and the accused was arrested after sustained interrogation.

During the investigation, it was discovered that Hussain and a few of branch employees conspired to commit fraud and opened a fake bank account in the name of Mahindra Finance Limited at Khatla branch of Mizoram Rural Bank (MRB) in 2020 using forged documents to park the defrauded money, he said.

“So far, we have arrested 11 persons, including the mastermind Jakir Hussain in connection with the financial fraud amounting to Rs. 150 crore. Further investigation is going on and some more individuals suspected to be involved in the fraud are likely to be arrested,” Shukla told a news conference in Aizawl.

He said that Hussain has sanctioned vehicle loans by forging fake documents and files to over 2,000 ghost customers or non-existent customers during the last four years.

However, Hussain and his aides have never delivered the vehicles to customers, but instead sold them to other individuals at discounted prices, he said.

Hussain and his associates used the modus operandi of paying the EMI payment on time to ensure that the ghost loan account does not turn into a non-performing asset and also to avoid any suspicion.

At the time of the company audits, Hussain used to shift fake files from the company office to the residence of one Manoj Sunar, whom he paid Rs. 15,000 per month for helping him in the fraudulent operations and forging stamps.

The DGP said that 15 new cars worth Rs. 3 crore, 3 laptops, 10 mobile phones, 549 ghost customer files, 25 forged seals, over 30 SIM cards and other incriminating materials were recovered from the accused during the investigation.

He said that 26 bank accounts, including those of local car dealers, amounting to Rs. 2.5 crore have also been frozen.

Five of the accused, including Hussain, are now in police remand, while the rest were sent to judicial custody, Shukla

added.