More than five years after evading arrested, the 54-year-old director of a construction company who along with his accomplices had duped nearly 150 investors and home-seekers in the coastal area of Arnala near Virar to the tune of more than ₹30 crore was finally arrested by the crime branch unit (zone III) attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police. The accused who has been identified as-Raju Siddhya Sulire (54) was apprehended by a team led by police inspector- Pramod Badhaakh and PSI-Umesh Bhagwat from Kengeri area of Bengaluru in Karnataka. According to the police, the accused and his accomplices had floated several construction companies in the region including Mandar Housing Private Limited and offered cheap flats to gullible home seekers and investment opportunities to investors by showcasing a couple of their completed buildings between 2001 to 2018.
The Housing Scam
However, after accepting the money, the accused not only failed to hand over possessions but also went on to sell a single flat in under-construction buildings and proposed under construction sites to multiple buyers by registering the properties on the virtue of fake and fabricated documents. A complaint against seven people including Sulire was registered against the accused under the relevant sections of the IPC for cheating and criminal conspiracy along with the provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, 1999 in May-2018.
Some of his accomplices had been arrested earlier, while others managed to procure anticipator bails from the court, an official said. However, Sulire, whose bail application was rejected by the Apex court last year, went absconding and kept changing his locations to avoid arrest. The case was recently handed over to the crime branch unit. After investigations, the team learnt about Sulire’s presence in Bengaluru and arrested him with the help of their local counterparts in Karnataka. The Arnala police are conducting further investigations.
