Person Proclaimed as CA Arrested in 2.4 Crore Car Loan Scam

The Mumbai Police have discovered a major car loan fraud involving a fake Chartered Accountant who misused the loopholes in the banking system and misused personal documents in a Rs 2.4 crore scam. The main accused, Rahul Giri Shah, was arrested on Sunday along with the other accused, Sachin and Saurabh. They all promised easy profits through a car rental business, but instead left their victim drowning in debt.

The fraud started in August 2023, when Suhash Mestri (complainant) met a man named Rahul Giri Shah through a friend, Harshal Gangurde. Shah said he had links with top hotels and government offices. He suggested to them a plan to start a car rental business, asking Mestri to buy new cars under his name using bank loans and giving them for rent to make a monthly profit. In return, Shah promised to pay all the EMIs and down payments and share monthly profits.

Mestri was fascinated by this idea, and he and his wife gave their personal document. Using these documents, Shah took 15 to 18 car loans and a personal loan from various banks and finance companies like SBI, Kotak Mahindra, and Bajaj Finance. He took a loan of up to Rs 2.15 crore. He also took Rs 5.09 lakh from Mestri for down payments and made him buy two phones and two laptops on EMI, worth Rs 1.32 lakh. However, Shah bought the cars but did not pay any EMI.

Mestri had already spent around Rs 19 lakh from his own savings by February 2025, thinking the business was running smoothly. But later, he found out the cars were not being used the way Shah had told them, and their personal details had been misused to take multiple loans. Mestri never earned the profits. He said in his complaint that they were tricked and left to repay loans for cars they never even benefited from.

Shah was first arrested by the Achole Police in Vasai for a similar fraud case. After Mestri filed his complaint, Kalachowky Police took his custody and booked him under Sections 316, 318(4), and 3(5) of the BNS Act, 2023.

During the investigation, police caught another person who was also involved in getting the fake loans approved and transferring the money to Shah. The accused, during questioning, admitted that the vehicles were passed on to Paras Botadara and Vijay Rajpurohit, who are believed to be key suspects in the larger scam. So far, the police have managed to seize two out of the 15 vehicles involved: a Hyundai i20 of Rs 12.96 lakh and a Hyundai i10 worth Rs 8.12 lakh. The police are trying to recover the other cars too. Investigators think there may be many more victims connected to this fraud, and more arrests could happen soon.

An official said that panchanamas have been done, and they have gathered digital proof like chat messages and bank transaction records. This scam shows that it is easy for fraudsters to misuse your documents and that Banks are giving loans without checking properly.