A case has been registered against four persons for defrauding a jeweller of Rs 1 crore rupees under the pretext of allotting MHADA flat to a Malad-based jeweller in Mumbai on Thursday.
According to a report by Indian Express, the victim, Prashant Jain, 43, a former Kalbadevi jeweller now working as a marketing manager at a Zaveri Bazar gold company, met the accused — Sachin Dhuri, Yogesh Pote, Mahadev Bodhale, and Satish Jadhav — in 2019.
In 2019, Pote introduced Dhuri to Jain as a Class-1 MHADA flats distribution officer, with Bodhale and Jadhav as his assistants. According to Jain’s statement, the accused convinced Jain that Dhuri was responsible for flats that hadn’t been claimed by lottery winners due to missing documents.
They told him these flats could be purchased at a discounted rate without a lottery by submitting a letter of intent to Mhada and obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the original lottery winner.
Accused Never Delivered Payment Receipts, Allotment Letter
The accused arranged for Jain to meet some lottery winners, and he chose one of their flats. Later, the accused collected Rs 1.02 crore from him in cash, citing various fees and the flat’s price, and promised him payment receipts and an allotment letter.
However, the accused never fullfilled their promises. They repeatedly began delaying the process with excuses citing the reason of the state government change and due to Covid lockdown.
Growing suspicious, Jain paid his visit to the MHADA office and checked their website to verify the identities of the alleged officials. To his shock, he discovered that none of the individuals worked at Mhada, according to a police officer.
When Jain confronted the four accused and asked for his money back, they ignored his requests and eventually blocked him. Later, Jain developed TB, which delayed him from reporting the incident. After his recovery, he recently went to the police and filed a complaint.
The Malad police have charged the four suspects with cheating, forgery, and document falsification, and they are continuing to investigate. Police suspect that the accused may have used similar tactics to deceive others.
