A father-son duo has been booked by the police for allegedly cheating a Mankhurd-based family with bogus promises of providing a flat in an MHADA building and taking Rs 13.5 lakh from them.
Raju Malekar, the complainant, is a professional electrician who currently resides in an apartment. However, from 2011 to 2019, he lived in the Sonapur area in Jyotirling Nagar in Mankhurd. During this period, his neighbor named Ashok Chavan and his son Prakash suggested an apartment in Prime Minister’s Grant Program (PMGP) Colony, Mankhurd, to Malekar.
The PMGP is managed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). The Chavans assured Malekar of providing a flat at a lower price of Rs 22 lakh. Malekar and his family members eagerly visited the flat and liked it, eventually finalising the deal. "We didn’t question much about what and why, as we knew them (Chavans) for a long time, and we trusted them," Malekar told the police.
On the pretext of a token amount, registration fee, and others, the duo took Rs 13.5 lakh from Malekar via cash, check, bank transfer, etc., and even by selling some gold. In 2017, Prakash invited Malekar to his house, where a man was sitting with a laptop and a handprint machine. Malekar learned that the original owner of the PMGP flat was a man named Prabhakar Tote, who was not present at that time. When inquired about the same, Ashok said he would come later. Along with a witness, Malekar signed the registration form, of which a Xerox copy is with him to date.
"I kept asking him about the flat. At first, he told me not to share information about the flat with anyone; later, he started ignoring my calls and messages. Eventually, he began abusing and threatening me for calling him and asking for my money back," said Malekar, who had provided a written complaint to the Mankhurd police. This complaint was converted into a first information report (FIR) on Saturday.
In the FIR, along with the father and son, an unknown man who made Malekar sign the form has been mentioned as the accused. The trio has been charged with offenses under sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intent), 465 (forgery), and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
