East Delhi: police say two brothers put their own photos on namesakes' PAN cards with AI and took online loans; police found 30+ loans on a complainant's PAN

The complaint. According to the East Delhi DCP quoted by Dainik Jagran (30 September 2026), the complainant told the cyber police station that several loans were running on his PAN number although he had taken none; the investigation found more than 30 loans on his PAN totalling about Rs 7 lakh and found that he had been made guarantor for about Rs 47 lakh across several loan accounts, and the loans had affected his CIBIL score. Amar Ujala (30 September 2026) reports the same DCP saying the fraud came to light after a complaint by an East Delhi resident who had never applied for a loan and whose credit profile was ruined, and that a cheating case was registered at the cyber police station on 17 August.

The method, as police describe it. Jagran reports that the investigation found the accused had obtained the complainant's PAN card from the internet, used AI to place their own photograph on it, bought 10 mobile SIM cards on that card, and exploited the practice of online lenders that take only a copy of a PAN card as guarantee to take about Rs 1 crore in loans in the complainant's name. Amar Ujala reports the police account as digital tampering with real people's PAN cards, voter IDs and other identity documents, changing the name, father's name and photograph to build false profiles on which online loans were taken, and says the accused bought about 14 SIM cards between December 2022 and July 2023. The two reports therefore differ on whether AI is named: only the Jagran account attributes the photograph swap to AI.

Scale and arrests. Police say the two accused, brothers living in Gurugram, chose people across India who share their own name; about 50 such namesakes have been found with loans taken in their names, of whom ten victims have been identified. Police recovered bank passbooks, debit cards, cheque books, phones and SIM cards. Jagran reports that the accused told police they had been committing the fraud since 2022 and admitted to about Rs 50 crore of fraud in total; this is the accused's own statement to police and is not established. The complainant's and the accused's names, which are the same, are not repeated here.

According to police as reported by Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala, police found more than 30 loans (about Rs 7 lakh) running on the complainant's PAN number, which he said he had never taken, found that he had been made guarantor for about Rs 47 lakh, and the loans damaged his CIBIL score and credit profile; police say about 50 namesakes had loans taken in their names.

Police registered a cheating case at the East Delhi cyber police station on 17 August and arrested two brothers in Gurugram, according to both reports; recovered items include passbooks, debit cards, cheque books, phones and SIM cards. Police say they are tracing how the accused obtained real identity documents and whether others were involved. No court outcome is reported.