Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing arrests prime accused Manish in a ₹6-crore fraud case where the same Dwarka property was mortgaged to multiple banks using forged sale deeds and documents. His wife Anita was arrested earlier.
The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police has arrested Manish, the mastermind behind a multi-crore bank fraud case involving fake property documents and forged sale deeds. Along with his wife, Anita, the couple allegedly duped several banks by mortgaging the same Dwarka property multiple times.
A Plot Built on Paper: How a Single Property Fueled a Multi-Crore Scam
In the murky underbelly of financial fraud, it is often audacity that sets one case apart. For Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW), a fraud case unraveling since 2019 has exposed a deliberate, calculated abuse of India’s banking system—anchored by one residential floor in Dwarka.
The prime accused, Manish, 45, was arrested on April 28 after evading police for nearly a year. His wife and co-accused, Anita, had already been arrested in April 2024. According to the EOW, the couple orchestrated a scheme to mortgage the same property multiple times using forged documents, reaping at least ₹6 crore in total from unsuspecting banks.
ALSO READ: Call for Cyber Experts: Join FCRF Academy as Trainers and Course Creators
Forged Signatures, Faked Deeds: Anatomy of a Fraud
The fraud dates back to November 2019, when Manish and Anita, both directors of a private garment company, approached a leading private sector bank at Rajouri Garden. They sought a ₹3 crore overdraft facility, pledging the third floor of a residential building in Dwarka as collateral.
Unaware of the looming trap, the bank approved the facility after reviewing what appeared to be a legitimate sale deed and ownership documents, supposedly in Anita’s name. However, when the couple defaulted on repayment and vanished, the bank began probing—only to uncover that the same property had already been pledged to another private bank for ₹2.7 crore.
A deeper investigation revealed that the submitted sale deed was fabricated. The signatures of the Sub-Registrar had been forged, and even the address proofs and financial statements had been manipulated. The extent of deception was staggering: the same property had been “sold” multiple times—on paper.
The Man Behind the Mask: A Modest Past, a Criminal Present
Manish’s backstory is unassuming. Raised in government quarters near Delhi’s Teen Murti Marg, he completed an arts degree and started off as a small-time cloth agent. It wasn’t until 2018 that he acquired a dormant private limited company and launched a garment manufacturing unit in Uttam Nagar.
But the shift from textiles to white-collar crime wasn’t slow. To finance expansion, he allegedly chose fraud over finance. With Anita as co-conspirator, they orchestrated a paper trail strong enough to convince not one, but multiple banks.
When their deception finally came to light, an FIR was registered in December 2022 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
What Lies Ahead: A Case Still Unfolding
According to EOW officials, the probe is now widening to identify potential enablers such as document forgers and possibly insiders at banks or government offices who may have aided the scheme.
“This wasn’t a one-off transaction. It’s a well-planned, document-driven fraud designed to exploit institutional loopholes,” said an investigating officer.