India, June 4 -- At least 13 suspects have been booked for allegedly defrauding a private sector bank of Rs.71.5 lakh by availing personal loans using forged documents and diverting the funds to Mumbai, police said on Tuesday.

According to investigators, the loans were issued between May 2022 and February 2024 from a Sector 14 branch of a reputed private bank. The fraud came to light in February this year after the bank initiated an internal inquiry when several borrowers stopped paying their monthly instalments.

A senior police officer said the so-called customers were later found to be non-existent, having used fake documents to pose as employees of well-known automobile and spare parts manufacturing firms in Gurugram. All had submitt...