Mumbai: The Bhandup Police have registered a case of fraud against two women who allegedly duped 15 people out of ₹1.53 crore by offering them non-existent flats in an MMRDA housing project in Kanjurmarg (East), Mumbai.
The accused—Laxmi Kisan Bande alias Akka, 55, a resident of Bhandup, and Neeta Ankush Saraikar, 40, of Ghatkopar, who allegedly posed as an official of MMRDA —are accused of falsely claiming that they could allot homes under the MMRDA’s slum rehabilitation scheme for just ₹8 lakh each.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Meera Sudanna Kamble,60, a resident of Swapna Sakar Building, Subhash Nagar, MHADA Colony, Bhandup (West), was cheated out of ₹39.5 lakh. Kamble had been approached by Bande, a fellow resident in her building, in January 2023.
Bande claimed she was closely acquainted with Neeta Saraikar, a resident of Amrut Nagar, Ghatkopar (West), who she said was an official in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
The duo told Kamble that Saraikar’s office was overseeing the redevelopment survey work in chawls and that vacant flats under an MMRDA project in Kanjurmarg (East) were ready for possession. These flats, they said, were meant for slum dwellers from Kurla and Kanjurmarg but some units were still unclaimed and could be purchased through their contacts.
Trusting their claims, Kamble agreed to buy four flats for her family. To arrange the money, Kamble sold her house in Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli (East) for ₹12 lakh. Her son took a ₹16 lakh loan from BMC Bank, while additional funds were raised by mortgaging gold worth ₹6.5 lakh and selling family-owned land for ₹5 lakh. Over a span of ten months, from January to November 2023, she transferred ₹39.5 lakh to the accused.
However, no flats were ever allotted, and repeated attempts to recover the money failed. Kamble later discovered that both women had similarly defrauded several other investors. So far, 16 victims have filed complaints, bringing the total estimated fraud to ₹1.53 crore.
Police have filed charges under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act. Investigations are ongoing.
