The economic offences wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch on Thursday arrested the managing director of a real estate company on charges of duping 35 people of Rs 4 crore by promising them flats in the city. EOW identified the accused as Deepak Kumar Chhotray.
A cheating case was registered against him on January 25 on a complaint of Anil Kumar Panda, one of the duped victims.
“During investigation, we came to know that the accused had initially promised to provide plots to 35 people in Patrapada in 2016. After a few years, he expressed his inability to arrange plots and asked the buyers to purchase flats from him in Gadakana. The buyers agreed to the deal. They paid him about Rs 12 lakh each between 2016 and 2019,” said IGP (EOW) J N Pankaj.
According to Panda, the company has not yet provided the flats. Though Panda and several other victims approached Chhotray and requested him for refunds, the accused allegedly made them run to his office for months.
“I took a loan in 2018 and am still paying the monthly EMI. Chhotray signed an agreement with each one of us to give the flats. Chhotray threatened us when we requested him to return our money,” Panda wrote in his complaint.
EOW said the real estate company did not have any land bank and deliberately collected money from the 35 men for the purpose of cheating.
The probe authorities are trying to find out whether the company cheated others by floating similar dubious projects elsewhere in the city.
