Man who cheated 700 flat buyers of Rs 7 crore held from Kolkata

Saini lured nearly 700 people to invest into a housing project by lying to them that he had procured a 30-acre land in Bakhtawarpur.

A man who cheated 700 people of over Rs 7 crore on the pretext of giving them membership of flats in a co-operative society in outer Delhi’s Bakhtawarpur three years ago has been arrested from Kolkata, Delhi Police said on Friday.

The complaints against Saini began when a family approached the Subhash Nagar police station with a complaint that he and his agents had vanished after collecting Rs. 34 lakh for four flats they had booked with him (HT FILE)

Ajit Kumar Singla, additional commissioner of police (crime branch), identified the arrested man as 39-year-old Jai Prakash Saini and said he had been declared a proclaimed offender after most of his victims had approached the police with complaints against him in 2016.

“Saini had been living in Kolkata under the fake name of Trilok Singh Sindhu. He became a real estate consultant there and was planning to cheat people using a similar modus operandi there,” said Singla, adding that a tip-off about Saini’s location led to his arrest.

The officer said that between 2015 and 2016, Saini lured nearly 700 people to invest into a housing project by lying to them that he had procured a 30-acre land in Bakhtawarpur. He had offered them a host of benefits if they invested in his project, said Singla.

The complaints against Saini began when a family approached the Subhash Nagar police station with a complaint that he and his agents had vanished after collecting Rs. 34 lakh for four flats they had booked with him, said Singla.

Soon, complaints from other victims began to flow in after which the cases were transferred to the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing, the officer added.