On promise of flat, duo dupes retired CR employee of ₹47 lakh

Real estate agent and accomplice booked for cheating retired Central Railway employee of ₹47 lakh for flat in Mulund East; accused yet to be arrested.

Two persons, including a real estate agent, have been booked for allegedly cheating a retired Central Railway (CR) employee of ₹47 lakh after promising to provide him with a flat in Mulund East. The accused, identified as Shrikrishna Sawant and Salim Abbas Khan, are yet to be arrested.

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According to police, the complainant, Pradip Rane, retired as a senior technician with the CR in 2017. Rane alleged that his elder daughter, who lived in Mulund, suffered a brain stroke in 2020 and was undergoing treatment in a hospital. Rane and his wife, who were staying in Bhayander, planned to relocate to Mulund, thinking if they would stay near her residence, they could take care of their daughter, a police officer said.

Rane, 66, discussed the issue with his Mulund-based cousin, Shrikrishna Sawant, who introduced him to Salim Abbas Khan, a real estate agent. The duo showed Rane various flats, including one in C wing of Destiny Heights at Gavhanpada in Mulund East. Rane liked the flat and decided to buy it. The deal was fixed for ₹51.52 lakh in 2019 and Rane gave ₹47 lakh to the duo between December 2019 and March 2022 in multiple installments, the FIR, registered on Sunday, said.

Sawant said he would hand over the flat to him in one month. But after Sawant gave the flat keys and documents of the premises to Rane, he could not open it. When he enquired about it with Sawant and Khan, they said they would get him the actual keys within 15 days. Meanwhile, Rane checked the documents and found them to be fake, the police officer added. Rane then approached the Navghar police and filed a complaint against the duo.

The police have registered a case against Sawant and Khan under section 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forged document for cheating), 471 (whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any documents or electronic records), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Senior inspector Madan Patil from Navghar police station said, “The accused gave forged documents of the flat to Rane. The accused have not been arrested yet, but our investigation is underway.”