Dreams of owning a home in the city has cost 15 Mumbaikars, who were all "sold" the same Andheri flat by a gang of two conmen
Dreams of owning a home in the city has cost 15 Mumbaikars, who were all "sold" the same Andheri flat by a gang of two conmen. After cops acted on two complaints from the "buyers" and arrested the duo from the western suburbs, it's come to light that in a multi-crore scam, the duo posted the advertisement of the same flat on multiple real-estate classified portals and duped scores of people by 'almost selling' the flat to all of them.
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The accused have been identified as Mandar Shetty and Rakesh Shetty. Speaking to mid-day, DCP (Zone 10) Navinchandra Reddy confirmed the news and said that investigations are on to trace more people that the duo may have duped.
An MIDC police officer said, "The Shettys posted ads of Flat No. 401 at Gurinivas Building, Jijamata Nagar in Andheri East, across real estate portals, such as 99acres.com and magicbricks.com. As part of their modus operandi, the duo quoted a very low price for the flat before they took the prospective buyers for a flat visit and, if the latter showed willingness to purchase the flat, they immediately assured that they would expedite the purchase formalities for these people. It was only after they collected the token money for the flat that they cited multiple excuses to stall the flat's registration process."
The Andheri flat listed online
Apparently, people from Meghwadi, the MIDC area and even those from the city's outskirts, have been flocking to the cops with similar complaints. According to sources, a Canada-based NRI and a Delhi resident have also been duped by the duo.
Following probe, cops found that the duo told the prospective buyers that there was some legal dispute pertaining to the flat, which was delaying the registration process.
Based on the complaints received so far, the duo has cheated three people of R1.89 crore.
The case has been transferred to the Jogeshwari police. A sub-inspector from the police station said, "Both the accused are in judicial custody."
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