The Meghwadi police has arrested five persons, including a PSI with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), for allegedly duping a 60-year-old man from Andheri promising him a flat under the CM’s quota in the same suburb. A complaint was filed on Friday following which the accused were arrested. They took a total `60 lakh from the victim from January this year for arranging a flat under the CM’s discretionary quota for disabled persons, as his son was physically disabled.
Sheriyar Irani, a private contractor by profession, is a resident of Vastunidhi Building in the Pump House area of Andheri (east) and lives with his wife and son. According to the Meghwadi police, the victim knew one of the accused Rajesh Upadhyay for many years. “Rajesh was aware the other five accused dealt part time in real estate. He along with Sanjay Mehta first met the accused in January this year where they said they would require medical certificates and other documentation about his son’s disability and also made him sign on an application form. `10 lakh in cash was first taken,” said a police officer.
A month later, the three along with PSI Dilip Bhosale (50), who is attached to the Nagpada unit of the ATS, met the accused. “Interestingly, they falsely introduced Bhosale as a retired police officer who now works as a security officer in the CM’s office at Mantralaya. They took another `25 lakh for procuring the ‘allotment letter’. In the next meeting, the other accused Jagjitsingh Atra and Anil Purohit were introduced to the victim when he paid another `10 lakh in cash, this time for parking and other facilities. A forged letter from the collector’s office was also handed over to him,” the officer added further.
The accused made the last payment of `17.10 lakh through a demand draft (DD), following which the accused promised to hand over the flat keys. “The accused had put a fake ‘received’ stamp of the city collector’s office on the DD. When they began stalling, there was an argument where they also threatened to harm him. He then visited the collector’s office on June 29 after remembering the stamp, when the officers there pointed out that he was duped,” said senior PI S.D. Bhandare.
All five were arrested for cheating, criminal intimidation and forgery of the IPC and remanded to police custody till June 18.