The Colaba police have booked a man from Thane for cheating several people on the pretext of selling them an apartment at Seawoods, Navi Mumbai.
One of the complainants Sanjay Desale, 55, lodged the FIR against the accused Manoj Tandel on January 9. According to his statement, in September 2022, his friend Swapnil Ugale’s friend Ajay Borse introduced Tandel to him. Tandel said he has an apartment at sector 16, Seawoods, Nerul, which he wanted to sell at Rs 10 lakh. Desale was interested, hence he agreed to the deal and decided to pay the amount in instalments. Tandel demanded the money in cash instead, so Desale did as he was told.
Tandel gave the word of giving the apartment’s possession in March 2023 and he assured to transfer the property to Desale’s name. For the same, when Desale checked with him, he started ignoring his calls and messages, said Desale. Tired of no response, Desale went to the apartment building to check on the situation – when he found from the neighbours and locals – that Tandel had “sold” the same flat to multiple people. He narrated the same story as he did to Desale, and others and took the money from them.
According to the police, as an investigation into the matter is underway, cops are now looking for more victims to come forward who were cheated by Tandel. There are at least eight people who Tandel cheated on similar pretexts of selling the house at Rs 10 lakh.
The modus operandi was to receive the entire amount by luring them by assuring property registration then disappearing on them, said police sources. Furthermore, Tandel after a point allegedly started to threaten Desale when he kept asking for his money back. However, no additional sections apart from cheating have been added against Tandel in the FIR.
