68-yr-old man cheated of ₹77 lakh in flat purchase fraud in Gurugram

A couple in Gurugram has been booked for cheating a man of ?77 lakh by taking advance payment for a luxury apartment and selling it to someone else. The victim had paid the couple in multiple transactions but later discovered that they had sold the property to another person. An FIR has been registered against the couple under various sections of the IPC. Police are collecting records from the court and will take necessary action based on evidence.

Gurugram: A couple was booked for allegedly cheating a man of ₹77 lakh after taking advance payment for a luxury apartment on Golf Course Road in Sector 54 and later selling it to someone else, Gurugram police said on Monday.

68-yr-old man cheated of ₹77 lakh in flat purchase fraud in Gurugram

The victim, identified as Arvind Kumar Khurana (68), hails from Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, and was planning to buy an apartment, police added.

Investigators said Khurana was presently residing in a condominium in Sector 54. The suspects had introduced themselves to be the owner of a 5,250 square feet apartment in the same condominium where the victim is residing since January 2021.

The suspects agreed to sell the flat to Khurana for ₹5.51crore and demanded earnest money to clear a loan on the property for getting deeds and no-objection certificate from the bank, police said.

Investigators said that Khurana paid ₹77 lakh to the couple in multiple transactions on January 14 and January 15, 2021. Immediately, they signed an agreement to sell him the property.

However, Khurana came to know that the suspects kept the loan amount as well as society maintenance charges pending even after getting the earnest money. Besides, he also came to know that they had signed an agreement to sell the same apartment to another person.

Police said when Khurana urged the couple to refund his money, they gave him two cheques, but they were dishonoured in April and June 2021 respectively.

Khurana gave the couple time to return the money as the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak then, but in January 2022, he came to know that the property was sold to a third person after which he approached a court to get his money back.

On court orders, an FIR was registered against the couple under Section 34 (common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 466 (forgery of record of court or public register), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using forged documents or electronic record as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sector 53 police station on Saturday, police said.

Rajender Singh, station house officer (SHO) of Sector 53 police station, said they are in the process of collecting records from the court. “We will be serving a notice to the suspects and ask them to join our probe and will take necessary action based on evidence,” he added.