Vadodara: An assistant manager of a private finance firm in Mahisagar has been accused of cheating customers by producing their death certificates even when they were alive. Santrampur police registered a complaint of cheating and forgery against Pankaj Mal, a resident of Mahisagar.According to the complaint filed by Narendra Maachi, area manager of Samasta Finance, a microfinance venture of India Infoline Finance Ltd (IIFL), in May he got a call from the vigilance officer of his company saying death certificates of two borrowers had been uploaded online and their loan accounts had been closed despite them being alive. The officer told Maachi that the borrowers had transferred funds to Mal’s bank account.The complainant said when he questioned Mal about it, the latter admitted that he had uploaded fake death certificates of about six to eight persons and closed their loans. But Mal didn’t provide the names of those persons, after which the vigilance officer began an investigation.According to the complaint, Mal had been showing borrowers as dead by submitting bogus death certificates because according to company rules, once the borrower is dead, his loan is waived and the sum already paid is credited to the deceased’s bank account as a part of their insurance coverage. Once the repaid amount was credited to the borrower’s account, Mal would tell the borrower to transfer it to his own account by making some excuse.It emerged that Mal had done this for 32 borrowers and siphoned off over Rs 12.76 lakh. Company officials asked Mal to return the sum as he did not do so, an FIR was registered against him.
