Bengaluru police arrested six people in April 2024 for a large‑scale property fraud in which a single piece of land in Begur was allegedly mortgaged multiple times to raise crores in bank loans using forged documents.​

The April 2024 fraud case

According to reports, Jayanagar police cracked a racket where one property was fraudulently “reused” as collateral across as many as 22 banks, including nationalised, private and cooperative lenders, with fake land records and title papers. The gang is alleged to have cheated banks of around ₹10 crore through this scheme, making it one of the more striking recent cases of document‑based property fraud linked to Bengaluru’s fast‑growing outskirts.​

Who were arrested

Police identified the alleged kingpin as Nagesh Bharadwaj, around 60, a dismissed employee of the Accountant‑General’s office in Bengaluru, who reportedly used his experience as a loans and documents “agent” to orchestrate the fraud. Those arrested included his wife, her relatives and an associate, all residents of the Begur area, who allegedly helped create and circulate forged sale deeds and khata papers to different banks.​

Modus operandi and scale

Investigators said the accused created fake title deeds and related land documents for a single Begur property and then mortgaged it repeatedly to different banks to secure overlapping loans. By the time irregularities were flagged and complaints surfaced, the same property had reportedly been used to obtain loans running into about ₹10 crore, and at least nine earlier cheating cases against the main accused had also been traced.​

Police sources indicated that the group had been operating for several years, pledging the disputed land, going incommunicado when questioned, and then resurfacing with new bank targets and fabricated paperwork. The April 2024 arrests came after a focused probe into one cheating complaint led investigators to link multiple loan accounts, uncovering the pattern of repeated mortgaging on the same asset.​

Action by police and banks

Following the arrests, Bengaluru city police said further investigation was underway to quantify the total exposure of all affected banks and to trace any additional properties or shell assets purchased with the proceeds. Banks were advised to tighten due‑diligence checks on property documents, including independent verification of survey numbers, encumbrance status and prior charges before clearing high‑value mortgage loans.​

Senior officers also used the case to warn both lenders and borrowers that document manipulation around sites in fringe areas like Begur is a recurring risk, stressing that criminal action will be pursued in all instances of forged land records and multiple mortgaging. The episode highlighted the need for stronger integration between banking systems and land‑records databases to detect duplicate use of the same property as collateral at an early stage.​

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