Three held for Rs 523-crore property frauds in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: Three residents of Punjab, including a woman, were arrested by Gurugram police on charge of involvement in fraudulent sale of immovable properties totalling Rs 523 crore in the district.

Officials said that the gang used to forge documents related to plots of land owned by NRIs in Ansal Townships and sell them to unsuspecting buyers.

Those arrested are Kavita Rani alias Riya Sehgal, 33, Rahul, 29, and Ranveer Kumar, 49. The gang kingpin is Sanjay Kathuriya, a proclaimed offender. Other accused were identified as Sandeep alias ‘Mota’, Ajay Sehgal alias Alok Kumar and Rakesh Kumar alias Ram.

Sanjay was settled in Dubai along with his family, police said. The Haryana Police had announced rewards of Rs 1 lakh each for the arrest of Kavita, Rahul, Ranveer, Sanjay and Rakesh in January 2021.

Nine cases of property fraud were registered against the culprits at Sushant Lok and Sector 29 police stations.

The accused had till now sold more than 10 plots through fraudulent means. An SIT led by ACP (DLF) Karan Goyal and ACP (Crime) Preet Pal Sangwan and including members of Crime Branch from DLF Phase-4 and Sector 40 was formed on the direction of district police chief to deal with the case.

“The accused were arrested from a guesthouse in Sector 39 after a tip-off on February 5 and sent in five-day police remand,” Sangwan told IANS.

“During interrogation, the accused revealed that they used to open fake bank accounts based on forged documents and later transfer huge sums of money to them by selling plots fraudulently,” Sangwan said.

He said that prime accused Sanjay conducted recces in Ansal Townships in Sushant Lok, Palam Vihar and Sector 29 area to find plots and houses whose owners did not visit often.

The gang members then used to prepare forged documents by using details of owners from area people and officials. Later, they got transferred the properties to either themselves or someone they knew and later sell these off to unsuspecting buyers, the police said.

“Rakesh brought people from Punjab to Gurugram to pose as owners of plots and prepared fake sale deed documents. The accused paid Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh as commission to these people” the ACP said.

The accused named one Kunal of Punjab for preparing fake IDs and Aadhaar Cards to facilitate opening of bank accounts and one Kamal who prepared fake passport in Chandigarh.

“During investigation, the probe team found that transactions of around Rs 523 crore had been done through their bank accounts in the past six months. Information on the same will be forwarded to the Enforcement Directorate. Further probe is underway,” Sangwan said.