A 52-year-old senior journalist has filed a complaint with the Mulund police after an alleged fraud of Rs16 lakh by two persons, including a woman posing as a BMC employee, on the pretext of a special quota flat.
In 2019, the journalist, Nitin L Maniar, was house hunting when a property agent-friend, Sandeep Vasargaonkar, 40, told him about the ‘Chief Minister’s Journalist Quota’, which promised discounted property rates. Vasargaonkar introduced Maniar to Harshada Chavan, 39, who claimed to be a BMC employee in the ‘construction department’, promising to secure flats through the Chief Minister, Prime Minister, and BMC quotas.
Maniar met Chavan at her Colaba office, where she said that builders must allocate flats through these quotas under the BMC Yojana. She claimed that her ‘government login from Delhi’ could secure a flat at Maniar’s preferred location. Following this, Vasargaonkar advised Maniar to provide the RERA number and the area he was interested in, with Chavan handling the booking and down payment.
Vasargaonkar took Maniar to a property in Panvel to gain his trust. Later, Maniar selected Marathon Zaver Arcade in Mulund West and gave the RERA number to Vasargaonkar, who later offered two of the five apartments and two shops in the building. He suggested purchasing the flat in the name of a senior citizen to expedite clearance. For this, Maniar gave names of his 60-year-old sister-in-law and 74-year-old mother.
Maniar was asked to pay Rs5 lakh to Chavan as a token amount and an additional Rs4 lakh as a bribe to expedite the clearance of Maniar’s documents. After two months, Vasargaonkar offered Maniar a shop in the same building, priced at Rs2 crore but available at Rs40 lakh. He paid Rs10 lakh as a token amount. Over a period of many months, he paid Rs25 lakh to the two.
By March 2021, frustrated by the delays, Maniar demanded a refund. Vasargaonkar and Chavan returned Rs4 lakh and Rs5 lakh, respectively, in cheques. The other cheques paid bounced due to insufficient funds. Despite repeated attempts, Maniar could not recover Rs16 lakh. The police have charged the duo under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
