Man dupes 455 investors of Rs 200 crore, held

Director of several fake real estate companies was arrested last week for duping over 455 home buyers in Delhi and NCR over many years of more than Rs 200 crore, the police said on Tuesday.

The developer, Manoj Bhardwaj, had invested funds he had procured from the buyers in building 35 temples in the city. Every month, he gets around Rs 3.5 lakh in donations from these temples and that money is tax free.

The accused’s plan appears to be inspired by Bollywood film Khosla Ka Ghosla as he would take prospective buyers to see plots of land that did not belong to him, said Ishwar Singh, DCP (South). He used to erect advertisement boards at the “site” and make potential buyers believe that the land belonged to him.

Investigators revealed that Bhardwaj did not even own a single plot of land, but had cheated people of over `200 crore. The police has received a total of 455 complaints against the accused and believes that many others are yet to seek legal remedy against the cheat.

The plots of land that Bhardwaj showed the victims would have billboards of his fake companies, most of which began with the name Arun Dev.

“Initially, Bhardwaj started a company in the name of Arun Dev Builders Pvt. Ltd. Later, he started many other sister companies in the names of his relatives,” said the DCP on Tuesday.

The economic offences wings of the police forces in Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad had been receiving complaints from his victims for a long time. Many complaints were also being received in South Delhi’s Neb Sarai police station as the address mentioned in the money receipts given to the victims fell in the area.

A team was subsequently constituted by the South district police to nab the accused. A tip-off that he would visit Devli village in South Delhi led to his arrest last week.

Bhardwaj’s modus operandi was simple. He would lure prospective plot buyers through advertisements in newspapers. When a buyer approached him, he would show them plots of land claiming that new colonies would come up there.

To come across as convincing, Bhardwaj would have at least half-a-dozen men flank him during trips to these plots. The job of convincing the buyers would then be left to these men. While accepting money from his victims, Bhardwaj would also give them the sale agreement.