Mangaluru: Barke police have busted a gang of five on Tuesday early hours, that had cheated a co-operative bank with fake documents of four lorries to secure second loans to the tune of Rs 93.94 lakh.

Disclosing this to reporters on Tuesday, Police Commissioner M Chandra Sekhar said the accused are Anil Kiran Noronha, a professional driver and resident of Kulshekar, Sudheer, a sand lorry operator from Alape, Jabbar and Valli alias Valerian D’Souza, a mechanic and a resident of Pavur in the city.

Police personnel attached to Barke station were inspecting vehicles near the Warehouse Junction around 5 am, when they came across a lorry. The first three suspects who were travelling in the same lorry failed to produce documents.

Upon inspection, a school bag was found inside the driver’s cabin, which had punching devices in English alphabets and numericals. Suspecting something fishy, the investigators took them to station only to unravel the racket.

Upon interrogation, the trio revealed that they, along with their another accomplice Naveen alias Melwyn Noronha from Ulayibettu (who was arrested later) and Abdul Jabbar from Kavalakatte near Vagga in Bantawal taluk, were tampering the engine and chassis numbers of the lorries to create fake documents to obtain loans from banks.

Anil had obtained loan of Rs 16.78 lakh from Canara Bank at Navabharat Circle, in January 2014, for a lorry bearing registration number KA 19 AB 5353 and had faked chassis and engine numbers. He had created fake documents with duplicate registration number (KA 19 AB 4683) to secure second loan of Rs 11.50 lakh from Milagres Credit Souharda Co-operative Limited, Hampankatta branch.

Sudheer too succeeds in securing loan of Rs 10 lakh from the same Milagres bank, after duplicating the engine number and chassis number, changing the registration number to KA 07 A 8215.

Naveen Noronha took first loan from Syndicate Bank (the amount is yet to be known) for a vehicle bearing registration number KA 19 AA 8418 and tampered the documents changing the registration number to KA 19 AB 3531 and secures second loan of Rs 16.79 lakh from Milagres Bank. Similarly, Valli obtains first loan of Rs 21.85 lakh from Canara Bank, Navbharat Circle and later secures second loan of Rs 17 lakh from Milagres.

The commissioner said that the scope of investigation will widen further in the coming days as three more suspects involved in the case remain to be apprehended. Moreover, many loose ends have been emerging during the investigation, with lapses in following Know Your Customer (KYC) norms at banks, besides at Regional Transport Office (RTOs) where Fitness Certificates (FC) are issued.

To a question on the involvement of the staff at Milagres Bank, the commissioner said, “It is too early to broach upon the same.”

In all, four lorries valued at Rs 80 lakh have been seized, with the irregularities calculated at Rs 1.73 crore (including the loan amount). The commissioner announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for the police team led by Barke inspector Rajesh A K.