New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) A man who duped a non-resident Indian (NRI) of Rs.1.4 million by posing as an agent of a private bank was arrested here Saturday, police said.
The victim, Pritpal Singh Malhotra, resides in the US. He wanted to purchase a flat in Gurgaon and was looking for a good home loan scheme. He was approached by Davinder Singh Ratra who posed as the chief executive of a company that helped procure loans from private banks, police said.

Ratra arranged a home loan of Rs.5 million for Malhotra from ICICI Bank’s Janakpuri branch, police added.

Though the bank gave Malhotra a repayment plan through EMIs, Ratra asked Malhotra to give him Rs.1.4 million as part of the repayment scheme to reduce the interest on the loan amount.

However, after getting the cheques worth Rs.1.4 million, Ratra deposited them in accounts in his and his wife’s names and went missing. Malhotra then filed a police complaint against him.

“During investigation, it was revealed that Ratra has no affiliation with ICICI Bank in any manner and was not the CEO in M/s Regards Marketing Pvt. Ltd. He is a self-styled agent of the bank, offering his services for arranging bank loans on commission basis,” a police officer said.

Police said during interrogation, Ratra admitted that he had duped a man named Surender Pal Verma of Rs.1.1 million in a similar fashion.