A 41-year-old director of a real estate company was arrested for allegedly duping more than 150 people to the tune of Rs 30 crore by inducing them to invest in his commercial project, police said on Thursday.
Accused Deep Kanwar Singh Walia, resident of Chandigarh, was nabbed by the Economic Offences Wing on Monday in connection with a 2018 case of cheating registered against him, they said.
Police said the case was registered against him on a complaint by the victim J P Kakkar and others alleging that in the year 2012-13, accused invited investors through advertisements to invest in his project.
According to the complainant, initially the company had claimed that it will build 33 floors in 99 days, and collected money with malafide intention to dupe and cheat the allotees.
Apart from that, they kept raising multiple fraudulent demands without undertaking construction and even levied interest on the amount which was not due at that time on the part of the complainants and other allotees, it said.
Later on, the accused changed the project’s name and also of his company. In 2012-2013, the company’s director had also assured that possession of the unit will be delivered by 2015, but arbitrarily extended the date of completion to 2022 and forced the allotees to enter in a new contract with them.
“The project was inordinately delayed without any construction done. The company also threatened us of forfeiting of 35% amount if any demand of returning the invested money is raised. The company is neither handing over the allotted units nor returning the money to the allotted buyers,” the complainants alleged.
Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said during investigation, bank accounts and other details of the alleged company were scrutinized and analyzed. It was revealed that the alleged company received money from public at large on the pretext to invest in commercial project.
Search of accused was made but he never joined the investigation. Thereafter, non-bailable warrant of the accused Deep Kanwar Singh Walia were obtained, the officer said.
Accused was arrested on September 5 from Chandigarh. Besides, co-accused Satinder Singh Bhasin had already been arrested in this case, he added.
