Real estate agent borrows woman’s flat to house Covid-19 patients, later rent it out

The police on Tuesday booked a real estate agent from Malad East for allegedly renting out a flat he had borrowed from a woman to keep two persons with Covid-19 in home quarantine

The police on Tuesday booked a real estate agent from Malad East for allegedly renting out a flat he had borrowed from a woman to keep two persons with Covid-19 in home quarantine. He had also signed the rent agreement as the flat owner and received a deposit of ₹6 lakh from the tenant, the complainant alleged.

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A case has been registered against the accused, identified as Shubhash Prajapati, under section 406 (criminal breach of trust), section 420 (cheating), section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc.), and section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of Indian Penal Code. A search is on for Prajapati.

Kailashben Dhanjibhai Rathod, 59, and her husband Dhanjibhai own a flat at Omkar SRA CHS in Kurar village of Malad East. The couple contracted Covid-19 in April 2021 after which they left for their hometown in Gujarat’s Amreli district. They also shifted their household articles to their son’s house in Dahisar, the complaint said.

Meanwhile, Prajapati, an estate agent with Vishakha Properties, approached the Rathod family, requesting them to allow two persons infected with Covid-19 to remain in home quarantine in their flat.

“Since there was a disturbing situation everywhere, I wanted to help him and thus, gave him my house keys. I told him that we would come back in two-three months,” Rathod said in her complaint.

Later when she contacted Prajapati from Gujarat he claimed that the flat was vacant. In September 2021, the couple returned to Mumbai and asked Prajapati to hand them the keys. However, Prajapati started buying more time on the pretext of one excuse or another, the complainant said.

When they visited their house, they found that a person was living there with his family. On enquiry, he told the Rathods that Prajapati had given the premises out on rent to them against a deposit of ₹6 lakh, an officer from Kurar village police station said.

Prajapati then did not answer their calls and was also not found at his office when the couple went there looking for him. “The couple managed to get a copy of the rent agreement and discovered that Prajapati had signed as the owner of the flat,” the police officer said.

Dhanjibhai said, “We haven’t yet got back the possession of our flat and are hopeful that the police will help us. We don’t want to speak on the matter.”

Police inspector R Panhale said, “Prajapati had taken advantage of the pandemic situation. We have received two more complaints of a similar nature against him. We are trying to trace him.”