2 doctors cheated of ₹35 lakh in Gurugram on pretext of loan to expand hospital

Police said that Dr Himanshu Gupta and Dr Vaibhav Bhola jointly own a multispecialty hospital on the Old Delhi-Gurugram Road in Sector 23A

Two doctors who own a hospital in Gurugram were cheated of ₹35 lakh by two men under the pretext of getting them a ₹3 crore loan from a bank to expand their hospital, police said on Thursday, adding that the suspects have been arrested.

The suspects sought ₹35 lakh from the doctors on the condition that they would return it and charge a 10% commission on the loan amount later. (Representational image)

Police said that Dr Himanshu Gupta and Dr Vaibhav Bhola jointly own a multispecialty hospital on the Old Delhi-Gurugram Road in Sector 23A, and were trying to arrange funds at low interest rates to expand it. A man approached them in December 2023 promising that he and his associate in Zirakpur, Punjab, could help in securing loans from foreign banks.

The suspects sought ₹35 lakh from the doctors on the condition that they would return it and charge a 10% commission on the loan amount later.

Dr Bhola, in his complaint to the police, alleged that the suspects informed him on February 26 that the loan was sanctioned by a firm in the UK and asked them to send their hospital documents and bank statement to it through email.

“The next day, we received a loan agreement copy which was signed and sent back to the foreign firm via email. We received another email soon in which a SWIFT code for 332204 Euros loan disbursal was shared and the suspects mounted pressure for commission,” he said.

A senior police officer said the doctors contacted their bank and provided the SWIFT code but were surprised to learn that it was non-existent. “The suspects later sent a loan disbursal letter from another bank in Frankfurt. Doctors again approached the bank for verification which informed them that they had communicated with their Frankfurt counterparts who refused to make any such transaction,” he said.

“On March 1, the suspects sent the doctors the statement of another foreign bank, which has branches here, too, showing loan disbursal in their account. The doctors approached one of the branches of the bank whose authorities confirmed that the statement and SWIFT code sent to them was fake,” he said, adding that the suspects later stopped responding to the doctors’ calls after threatening them.

On Dr Bhola’s complaint, a first information report was registered against the suspects at Palam Vihar police station on Wednesday under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

Inspector Ajarbir Singh, station house officer of Palam Vihar police station, said they were trying to trace the whereabouts of the suspects and arrest them. “It may take some time as the case has just been registered,” he said.