Property dealer arrested on charge of cheating tenants

The Grand Bazaar police on Thursday arrested a property dealer on charge of cheating a man after leasing two of his flats using forged documents here.

The police gave the name of the accused as K. Vijay, 33, managing director of Anugraha Property Hire, hailing from Sellaperumalpet, Lawspet. He had rented two flats of Sundar Babu in Vegatta Nagar and leased them to two other persons for ₹4 lakh each.

Mr. Vijay stopped paying rent to the house owner after two months. The house owner lodged a complaint with the Grand Bazaar police who arrested Mr. Vijay. A case was registered against the accused under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code.

Habitual offender

Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that Mr. Vijay had cheated over 35 persons in the city of more than ₹1 crore.

The accused recently came out on bail in another similar case of cheating. Sooshma Patil, a resident of Colas Nagar in Puducherry, lodged a complaint against Mr. Vijay at the Odiansalai police station last week. The police said the complainant had entered into a rental agreement with Mr. Vijay and leased a house in the town after paying a refundable advance of ₹4 lakh on February 14 last year. She could not move in immediately.

When she returned to the house in September, she was shocked to find another occupant there. When she approached Mr. Vijay, he said that he had sub-let the house to another occupant in her absence and promised to refund the amount of ₹4 lakh. However, the accused returned only ₹1 lakh to the complainant.