Man caught for selling New York resident’s property for ₹10 cr by impersonation

Police said Manish sold a plot measuring 810 square metres in Sushant Lok Phase-I to a person named Anand

A 45-year-old man was arrested from Firozpur in Punjab for selling a plot in the city for ₹10.7 crore by using his associate to impersonate the plot owner who is settled in New York, police said on Friday.

The suspect was identified as Manish Kumar. (HT Photo)

The suspect was identified as Manish Kumar, originally from Panje Ke Uttar village in Firozpur. He was taken on six-day police-remand for detailed interrogation after production before a city court on Friday to ascertain the identity of the other suspects.

Police said Manish was the mastermind of the entire forgery and he sold a plot measuring 810 square metres in Sushant Lok Phase-I to a person named Anand.

Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer (PRO)of Gurugram police, said that the victim was Gaurav Narula, a businessman settled in New York.

“His father had purchased the plot in 1985 and had transferred it in his name in 1991. Since then, it was in his possession,” said PRO Kumar.

Kumar said that Narula’s mother had returned to India last year and went to inspect the plot where she got to know that it had been sold to someone.

“She alerted his son who flew to India and got to know that someone impersonated him to sell the plot,” he said.

Investigators said that Narula filed a complaint at DLF police station Sector 29. The case was registered under provisions of forgery, cheating, impersonation and others in August last year after which the economic offences wing launched an investigation.

In the course of investigation, it surfaced that Manish and his associates forged the Aadhaar and other documents to make a person impersonate Narula.

Afterwards, Manish impersonated Narula’s brother and prepared a forged deed showing that the victim had transferred the plot in his name.

A senior police official said that it was on the basis of the transfer deed that Manish sold the property to the buyer for ₹10.7 crores.

“Out of the total sale amount, ₹7.71 crore was credited into Manish’s bank account. There is a strong possibility that employees of the revenue office might have also connived with the suspects. We are also investigating to ascertain if the buyer, Anand, was a part of the conspiracy,” said PRO Kumar.

Investigators said that all the money credited in Manish’s account was later transferred into other accounts. As per police, there is a suspicion that Narula’s mother was negotiating with some property dealers to sell the plot from where someone might have received information about the prime property and hatched the conspiracy to sell it.

“Till now, we know that Manish is the prime suspect. However, it might be possible that he was acting on directions of someone else which will be clear from his detailed interrogation,” said Kumar, adding several more suspects are yet to be arrested in the case.