The Hinjewadi police on Thursday registered an FIR of a builder with seven persons on the charge of duping Rs.17 crore over an investment deal.
The suspects wooed the builder to invest a large amount by promising attractive returns. They paid the returns initially in 2019 but later stopped doing so. They revised their agreement with the builder at least 11 times till the latter realised that the they had no intention of returning his principal amount and interest, the police said.
Assistant inspector Shashikant Dendge of the Hinjewadi police said the complainant came in contact with the suspects through a common friend. “The suspects running an investment firm told the builder to invest in some international projects and promised him good returns,” he said.
Dendge said the suspects initially gave returns to the builder on his investment and wooed him to invest more. “The builder went on investing money with the suspects. The suspects used to promise more returns and revise the agreement each time. A friend of the builder also invested some amount with the suspects,” he said. The assistant inspector said the complainant realised that the suspects had been duping him when he did not get the returns and the principal amount. “The suspects had told him that they were not able to return the amount because of the Covid-19 outbreak,” Dendge said.
He said when the complainant started pursuing the suspects for his money, they sent him a legal notice claiming he was harassing them and if anything happened to the main suspect, the notice would be treated as his dying declaration, Dendge said.