ED Cracks Down on ₹19.38-Crore SBI Luxury Car Loan Scam With Raids Across Pune; Premium Cars and Crucial Evidence Seized
ED Cracks Down on ₹19.38-Crore SBI Luxury Car Loan Scam With Raids Across Pune; Premium Cars and Crucial Evidence Seized
Sweeping enforcement action unfolded across Pune this week as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out coordinated raids at 12 residential and commercial sites tied to a ₹19.38-crore luxury car loan scam at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) University Road branch. The searches took place over Tuesday and Wednesday, November 26, and were conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
According to the agency, the investigation has revealed a sophisticated fraud network allegedly involving car dealers, loan applicants, an auto-loan agent, and officials from the SBI branch. Borrowers reportedly submitted forged documents to obtain high-value loans, which were then diverted to purchase luxury vehicles such as BMW, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Land Rover. These loans were allegedly approved without the mandatory verification process, allowing the accused to secure cars beyond their legitimate financial eligibility.
During the raids, ED officials seized multiple high-end vehicles and collected a range of incriminating documents. Several immovable properties linked to the borrowers were also identified. These confiscations were executed under Section 17 of the PMLA, 2002.
The operation stems from a First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the CBI Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Pune, along with Shivajinagar Police Station under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR names Amar Kulkarni, the former Chief Manager of SBI’s University Road branch (2017–2019), accusing him of collaborating with Aditya Sethia, then an SBI Auto Loan Counsellor, as well as select car dealers and borrowers. Together, they allegedly bypassed verification norms to push through inflated luxury car loans.
Investigators claim Kulkarni “improperly and dishonestly” processed and recommended loan proposals backed by fabricated KYC records and forged income documents, in clear violation of SBI’s lending standards. Several luxury car quotations were reportedly inflated—sometimes by more than ₹61 lakh over the genuine dealer invoice—to artificially raise the loan eligibility and secure higher disbursements than borrowers actually qualified for.
The scam surfaced during SBI’s internal review, which was initiated after a borrower’s account under a specific Customer Identification Identifier (CII) raised red flags. Subsequent scrutiny exposed discrepancies such as mismatched PAN numbers and dubious verification reports. When cross-checked, third-party agencies confirmed that several verification reports attributed to them were fake and had never been issued. These findings prompted SBI to file the FIR in January 2023, triggering the ED’s money-laundering probe that has now resulted in the extensive Pune raids.
