Navi Mumbai homebuyer cheated of ₹6.87L

Navi Mumbai

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A 42-year-old resident of Kopar Khairane was cheated of ₹6.87 lakh by a woman, who promised to help him buy an apartment in Thane. The Kopar Khairane police have registered a case of cheating.

Last year, Santosh Pawar was looking to buy an apartment when his brother told him his friend recently bought one at an affordable rate in Bhiwandi.

Pawar met his brother’s friend who introduced him to Amruta Thakkar, 25, in Thane. Thakkar showed Pawar a one-BHK apartment in Kasheli in Bhiwandi. He agreed to buy the apartment for ₹15.2 lakh.

Thakkar asked him to pay ₹6 lakh cash and the rest would be paid through a loan from LIC. Pawar sold his wife’s jewellery for ₹1.5 lakh, ₹1.5 lakh from his fixed deposit and borrowed ₹3 lakh from his father-in-law. He gave ₹6 lakh to Thakkar.

In December last year, Thakkar brought along a man, purportedly an LIC officer, at Pawar’s father-in-law’s house for loan verification. In March, Thakkar called Pawar near Thane court and gave him a registration agreement for the flat.

Thakkar said the file for the room will be ready in 10 days. When his father-in-law asked whether they will not need to go to the registration office, Thakkar dismissed his query and said it can be done online.

“When Pawar asked her to give him the apartment documents, she kept delaying it. Finally, she gave him the papers which Pawar learnt was leave and license agreement. Pawar went to inquire at the builder’s office and they informed him that the room has been sold to someone else,” said an officer from Kopar Khairane police station.

He confronted Thakkar and she said the land owner sold it without anyone’s knowledge. She gave him a cheque of ₹5.9 lakh which bounced. However, the woman promised to get him another flat and on the pretext of booking the apartment, spent ₹60,000 from his credit card to shop online.

Pawar was collectively cheated of ₹6.87 lakh.