Agents offer PAP flats to two women, dupe them of over ₹1cr
Four real estate agents, including a married couple, have been booked for allegedly duping two women of over ?1 crore on the pretext of providing them with Project Affected Persons tenements at cheaper rates in Parel, Mumbai. One of the accused is already in jail for his alleged involvement in a similar cheating case.
MUMBAI: Four real estate agents, including a married couple, have been booked for allegedly duping two women of over ₹1 crore on the pretext of providing them with Project Affected Persons (PAP) tenements at cheaper rates in Parel, according to Kalachowki police.
The accused are identified as Prashant Mistry, his wife Manali Mistry, and their associates Sunil Pawar, Jagdish Palande. Prashant is already in jail as he was arrested by the Kalachowki police in February this year for his alleged involvement in a similar cheating case.
In her statement to the police, complainant Dipti Chavan, 33, a Sewri resident who works in a private firm, said that she and her husband were searching for a new house in Parel and Sewri area. They came across a real estate agent, Jagdish Palande, who offered to make available, at cheaper rate, a PAP tenement in a building constructed by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in Parel.
The accused told them that there were flats in a MHADA building for people whose houses were demolished for road widening. Palande also told Chavan that she would not get a housing loan from a bank and would have to pay the entire amount by cheque or by cash.
The complainant and her husband agreed to make the payment by cheque, said a police officer. Palande then arranged a meeting between Chavan, the Mistrys and Pawar.
They showed her several MHADA files (list of people who were to get the PAP tenements). This included Namdev Bhargav Rane, a resident of Mahim, who claimed his society was demolished for road widening. Rane claimed he will get his flat in Khapridev Cooperative Housing Society on GD Ambekar Marg in Parel, said a police officer.
Rane wanted to sell his flat and had quoted ₹85lakh for his PAP tenement. After negotiation the amount was fixed at ₹80lakh. The complainant paid ₹40 lakh to Prashant by cheque.
After the payment, the accused agents, Namdev Rane and Chavan, met and an agreement and a general power of attorney was made in favour of Chavan, according to the FIR.
A few months later, the accused started threatening to “transfer” the MHADA file to someone else if the complainant did not arrange the balance amount immediately. Chavan then borrowed around ₹40 lakh from her brother and other relatives and transferred the amount to Prashant’s bank account.
After getting the money, the accused started avoiding her calls and messages. Recently, she learnt at Kalachowki police station that the accused had also duped another woman, Sneha Valunj, to the tune of ₹25 lakh in 2018- 2019 by promising to arrange a MHADA flat in Lalbaug, the police officer added.
“We recorded the statements of Chavan and Valunj and registered a cheating and forgery case against the four accused,” said Santosh Jadhav, assistant police inspector of the Kalachowki police station.