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Chandigarh: PGI psychiatry department head among two more duped by former Sector-51 RWA chief
Dr Debashish Basu, the head of the department of psychiatry, said he was cheated of ₹29.2 lakh on the pretext of pretext of providing them HIG flats under the UT administrator’s discretionary quota.
Two more persons, including a department head at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), have come forward against former Sector 51 residents’ welfare association (RWA) president Manjit Kaur, who allegedly duped people on the pretext of providing them HIG flats under the UT administrator’s discretionary quota.
Dr Debashish Basu, the head of the department of psychiatry, said he was cheated of ₹29.2 lakh, while Vishal Sagar and others from Peer Muchalla, Zirakpur, were cheated of ₹4.35 crore. Kaur is now involved in six such cases and is currently lodged in Burail jail.
As per the police, Dr Basu, who is a resident of Sector 24, got to know Kaur as he was treating her son, Vijay Pal Singh, for a mental illness. Kaur earned Dr Basu’s trust over the years by portraying herself as a religious and charitable person.
In August 2016, she had approached Dr Basu and said that she was close to the then UT administrator VP Singh Badnore and she is part of a committee constituted by him to re-allot and renovate surrendered properties in Chandigarh under his discretionary quota. She said that she would get them a house allotted in Sector 38 West or Sector 43 which would be legal but it would have to be kept confidential.
Dr Basu paid over ₹42 lakh between 2016 and 2018. When she wasn’t able to give any receipts for the money taken from them paid to the authorities they got impatient and she even returned ₹35 lakh only to ask for ₹30 lakh more in January 2020.
Later when news about her arrest spread, other victims started to come forward.
Using similar means, she had duped various residents of Peer Muchalla in Zirakpur, including Vishal Sagar who she had met in 2018. After taking money from them, she had assured that they would get allotment when the Prime Minister will visit the city under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana on August 15 2019. While making excuses for the delay, she had asked for more time but later the complainants found out that she had siphoned off the money to offshore accounts and was planning to flee the country. They had paid ₹4,35,66,000 to her for this.
Two cases under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have been registered against Kaur and her family at the Sector 49 police station. She has been lodged in jail for the past month and has three cases lodged against her at the Sector 49 police station and three cases are being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing. Police officials said it is hard to estimate how much money she had gathered through this modus operandi and it is expected that more complainants will come forward.
