Builder dupes 500 investors of Rs 10 cr, held

NEW DELHI: A 43-year-old director of several fake real estate companies has been arrested for allegedly cheating around 500 investors in Delhi-NCR to the tune of

NEW DELHI: A 43-year-old director of several fake real estate companies has been arrested for allegedly cheating around 500 investors in Delhi-NCR to the tune of around Rs 10 crore, police said on Tuesday.

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The builder and his associates tricked people into investing by promising plots in new colonies to be developed by their real estate group in Faridabad. During interrogation, the builder, Manoj Bharadwaj, said that he was “inspired by the Sahara Group” and was working on the same lines to cheat people, the police said in a statement.

Bhardwaj is a resident of Khanpur in south Delhi. With his arrest, the south Delhi Police claimed to have solved ten cheating cases registered at the Neb Sarai police station. Senior police officers said that many more such cases are registered against Bhardwaj with the Economic Offences Wings (EOWs) in Delhi, Faridabad, and Gurgaon.

“The complainants mentioned that they planned to purchase the plots from the real estate group after seeing advertisements. The builder had taken huge amounts of money from them and given an ‘Ikrarnama Note’ (Agreement to Sell) to all of them, showing images of the plots,” said Ishwar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (south).

When the investors tried to cancel the agreement and demanded their money back, the builder went untraceable. The offices were closed down and mobile phones were switched off, the DCP said. Aggrieved investors filed complaints at local police stations as well as with the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police.

Bhardwaj told police that he started a company in the name of Arun Dev Builders Pvt. Ltd. Later, he started eight sister companies in the names of his relatives and friends.

“Bhardwaj claimed that these companies had a turnover in hundreds of crores of rupees. Several incriminating articles, including cheques given by various complainants were recovered from his house,” DCP Singh said.