A businessman from Santacruz East lost ₹1.73 crore after he was cheated by a group of men while purchasing land at multiple locations in Lonavala and Maval. The Sahar police filed a case on November 4, against the accused Anil Wadgama, 52, and others from Lonavala.
According to the FIR, the victim, Satish Kundapur, who owns a company Caper India Private Limited, was introduced to Nitin Pille by a friend. Pille was involved in land selling and purchasing deals. Pille referred Kundapur to Anil Sawajibhai Wadgama from Bhangarwadi, Lonavala, as a potential seller.
In 2014, Kundapur purchased land in Lohagard from Wadgama. Later, Wadgama informed Kunadapur about another piece of land for sale nearby through a different owner and Wadgama was an agent. In 2018, Wagama and Pille introduced Kundapur to Tushar Gulle, another agent, and this time Kundapur paid ₹30 lakh to the agent for land in Lonavala. He was also given ‘relevant’ documents. Later, Wadgama took ₹12 lakh from the victim. However, Kundapur later came to know that the same patch of land was sold to someone else by Wadgama. When confronted, Wadgama, suggested another available land near Pawana Dam, offering to transfer the previous payments for this new deal. In 2019, the victim paid ₹40 lakh to Wadgama for another deal – ₹1,73,88,000 in total.
Realising that he was cheated, the victim approached the police and got the offence registered under sections 34 (act done for common intention), 420 (cheating and dishonestly), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.
