The firm and its representatives misled the investors that it has already acquired 17 acres of land and obtained the licenses to start the project, the officer said.

A 58-year-old civil engineer was arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of investing in real estate, police said on Wednesday.

Sanjay Chawla, a resident of Gurgaon, had cheated 53 people around Rs 9 crore, police said.

According to a complaint, Adel Landmarks Ltd had in March 2011 made a pre-launch of a project named ”Cosmo Court”, which was to come up at Sector 86 in Gurgaon, an officer said.

The firm and its representatives misled the investors that it has already acquired 17 acres of land and obtained the licenses to start the project, the officer said.

They urged the complainants to start making payments for bookings for the project in the pre-launch stage, stating that it was very nominal at this stage and the rates would be double once the project is officially launched, police said.

The company started accepting booking amounts from the investors much before the necessary approvals were obtained from the authority. The project was abandoned and the amount was not returned, the officer said.

Investigation revealed that Chawla was one of the directors and the authorised signatories in the company. He was arrested on Monday and on released on bail later as per the direction of a court, Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) Raj Kumar Singh said.

Chawla used to convince most of the customers to invest their money, police added.

Earlier, Sumit Bharana and Hem Singh Bharana, who were promoters of this project, had been arrested in this case, police said.

Source: PTI

(This story has been published from a wire feed without modifications to the text. Only the heading has been changed)

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