Man held for posing as SMC official to swindle 53L from seven

Surat: Khatodara police have apprehended a man who allegedly posed as an official of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and defrauded at least seven individuals out of Rs 53 lakh after promising them shops and houses in an SMC scheme.
The accused masqueraded as officers and took the victims to the Suman Tapi scheme in Vesu. They promised the victims allotment of units in the draw.The victims later discovered that the ‘officials' were bogus and lodged a complaint.
Babu Patel came into contact with the accused, Chirag Jariwala, through a neighbour, Arvindbhai. Jariwala claimed to be an SMC officer and introduced another accused, Rajnish Rathod, as his senior officer. The duo took Patel and other victims and guaranteed them shops and homes. Patel paid Jariwala Rs 29.5 lakh to book four shops in the scheme for himself and his brother.
Six other victims also gave money to Jariwala to book homes in the scheme. All had been introduced to Jariwala by Patel. They paid approximately Rs 23.5 lakh to Jariwala.
Khatodara police arrested Jariwala and have begun an investigation to determine who else is involved and the number of people he has deceived.