Two Men Booked for Cheating Bengaluru Airport Bank of Rs 30 Lakh With Fake IT Profiles

The police have booked two men for allegedly cheating a nationalised bank of Rs 30 lakh by posing as employees of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys to secure personal loans. The fraud took place at the bank's Air Cargo Complex Branch at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, where the accused submitted forged salary slips, fabricated employment records, and fake bank statements to obtain the funds.

The accused, identified as Guttua Venkatarao and Pavankumar Yelavarthi, allegedly secured two separate personal loans of Rs 15 lakh each. The fraud came to light after both borrowers defaulted on their repayments, prompting an internal verification of their documents by bank officials.

According to complaints filed by an assistant manager of the bank's Air Cargo Complex Branch, the loans were sanctioned in early 2024.

In the first case, one of the accused claimed to be working with TCS with a monthly salary of Rs 1,01,541. He submitted purported TCS salary slips for July and August 2023 along with fake bank account statements from ICICI Bank. Based on these documents, the bank sanctioned a personal loan of Rs 15 lakh on January 30, 2024.

In the second case, the other accused claimed to be employed with Infosys, earning a monthly salary of Rs 1,09,974. He provided fabricated salary slips for the period between August 2023 and February 2024, alongside fake bank statements. The bank approved his personal loan of Rs 15 lakh on February 22, 2024.

The discrepancies were discovered after both men stopped making their scheduled loan repayments. A detailed examination of the records by the bank revealed that the salary certificates, employment records, and bank statements were forged.

Following the discovery, the police registered two separate FIRs against Venkatarao and Yelavarthi. The charges include criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, and forgery for the purpose of cheating.

Investigators are currently looking into whether the two accused acted independently or were part of a larger syndicate specializing in creating counterfeit documents to defraud financial institutions. The police also stated that the probe will examine whether bank officials followed the required due diligence procedures before approving the loans.