Two persons including a civil engineer have been arrested by Mumbai crime branch for allegedly duping 50-60 people to the tune of several crores rupees. The accused lured the people into trap by promising them flats reserved for project affected people of MMRDA projects for which back dated documents such as electric bills, election cards and BMC slum ID's in victim's name have been fraudulently created, said police.
The fraud was going on since 2016 and middle class people who could not afford flats in Mumbai has been targeted. The accused identified as Sharad Adsule, 49 a civil engineer and Rajesh Mishra, 39. They lured over 50 people into trap posing as Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) agents and sometimes the agency's officials, said police.
The victims were assured that they will be allocated flats in SRA (Slum Redevelopment Authority) which are reserved from project affected people of MMRDA, such as those who lost their huts or flats in road widening and so on.
The accused used to create fake back dated electric bills before year 1994, election IDs and slum ID purportedly issued by the civic body in victim's name and also produced MMRDA's purported annexure list mentioning victims names as beneficiary of PAP scheme. However these documents were just for conning the victims and they were never submitted to MMRDA, revealed during.
In this way lakhs of rupees have been accepted by the accused, some have even paid ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh hoping to get a flat, said police.
After the crime branch unit 8 received a tip-off about their activities, they laid a trap and arrested the duo from Chembur last week. So far they have seized documents of over 50 people while 12 victims have approached the police with their complaint and their statement have been recorded.
The police have appealed to people to come forward and complaint if they have been duped by the accused similarly.
Mishra a resident of Kalina have five to six past cheating cases registered against him at Kherwadi, Vakola and Nirmal Nagar police station added the officer.
