New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) A senior sales manager with a private life insurance firm and his accomplice have been arrested here for allegedly duping at least 60 people on the pretext of getting them credit cards and easy bank loans, police said Tuesday.
Navin Kumar, who heads a team of 35 sales executives in the insurance arm of HDFC, and his accomplice Mohammad Yusuf alias Durgesh Kumar were arrested last week following a complaint by Vimal Kishore Jugran, a resident of Sarojini Nagar area, police said.

Police have recovered from the arrested men 23 mobile SIM cards, six mobile handsets, 10 debit cards and four credit cards of various banks, including the State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, ING Vyasa Bank, Vijaya Bank and ABN Amro Bank, a computer with stolen data of insurance customers, fake identity cards and a ‘magic pen’.

Jugran in his complaint said Navin Kumar called up him Aug 2 claiming to be the sales manager of ICICI Bank. Kumar offered him a ‘gold credit card’ against his insurance policy and said he can avail loans against this credit card, according to Jugran’s complaint.

Police said Jugran agreed to his offer as he badly needed funds due to a medical problem in the family.

Kumar then told Jugran to provide a crossed and signed cheque, salary slips, bank statements, two photographs and a photocopy of his insurance policy. He told Jugran that his executive Durgesh Kumar would visit him the next day to collect the cheque and documents.

“Durgesh then insisted that Jugran must sign a fresh cheque saying that the first cheque was not properly signed. Durgesh gave a pen to Jugran to sign the fresh check,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Delhi) H.G.S. Dhaliwal.

“The ink of this pen evaporates when rubbed with hand. The accused used to fill out the same cheque and deposit it in an account opened in fictitious names and later used to withdraw the amount,” he said.

According to police, the two withdrew Rs.96,300 from Jugran’s account.

And using the same modus operandi they cheated around 60 other people.

Dhaliwal said they were using mobile SIM cards obtained on fictitious papers to evade their arrest.

Describing Kumar as a “very smart banker”, Dhaliwal said he started his career with a leading insurance firm as a sales manager and led a team of 30 sales executives and worked there for three years. After that, he worked with two more private insurance firms before taking up the current job.

“Kumar ran a debt due to high ambitions and a lavish lifestyle. So he started duping people,” he added.