Man held on charge of cheating banks

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Medical College police arrested a man on the charge of cheating several nationalised banks of up to Rs 1 crore by taking loans, submitting forged title deeds as collateral. Circle Inspector A Pramod Kumar identified the suspect as Ninan Muhammad, 49, a resident of Karakulam. The bank employees had apparently issued him loans without visiting the land or verifying with the sub-registrar's officer whether such property existed, and if it did, whether it had any previous liability. He said some bank officers did not even read the forged title deeds the suspect had submitted as security. In a forged title deed, the plot number on the first page did not match the one on the second. The accused had taken loans ranging from Rs 8 lakhs to Rs 26 lakhs. The banks alerted the police when he defaulted on monthly payments. He was produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.