PUDUCHERRY: Police arrested a property dealer on charges of duping several people of more than Rs one crore in the
Union territory of Puducherry.
Deputy inspector general of police (law and order)
Rajiv Ranjan said the modus operandi of the accused - K Vijay, 33, managing director of Anugraha Property Hire who hails from Sellaperumalpet, Lawspet - was to hire houses on monthly rent and lease the houses to others after collecting refundable advance (pokkiam) of a few lakhs of rupees promising to return the money when they vacate the houses.
Vijay would mostly target people living outside Puducherry or the country and hire their properties on monthly rent. He will stop paying rent to the house owners after two or three months. He will later forcibly vacate the lessees without refunding the advance received by him or after making a part payment of the advance with the help of goons. He will again lease the properties to unsuspecting people after receiving the refundable advance of a few lakhs of rupees from them. He had been cheating several people using this technique for a while.
The issue came to the light after a woman, identified as Sooshma Patil, lodged a complaint with Odiansalai police station charging that Vijay had cheated her of Rs three lakh. She said she entered into an agreement with Vijay and hired a house in the town after paying a refundable advance of Rs four lakh on February 14 last year. However, she could not shift to the new property immediately. When she went to occupy the house in September, she was shocked to find another occupant in the house.
She approached Vijay, who said he leased to property to another person as she failed to occupy the house on time and promised to refund the advance of Rs four lakh. On repeated requests, Vijay paid Rs one lakh and failed to settle the balance amount.
Odiansalai police registered a case and managed to trace and arrest Vijay on Saturday. Vijay confessed to cheating more than 35 people of more than Rs one crore.
Ranjan appealed to the general public not to fall prey to fraudsters and deal directly with the house owners or tenants without involving fraudulent third parties.
