Real estate company official held for duping 5,000 people

Calcutta News.Net
Tuesday 9th September, 2008 (IANS)

A top official of a Delhi based real estate company was arrested from a hotel in Mumbai for allegedly cheating over 5,000 people to the tune of millions of rupees on the promises of luxurious flats, the police said Tuesday.

Wanted in 13 criminal cases, Devender Kumar Aggarwal, 47, chairman and managing director of of real estate company Laxmi Vatika Ltd, was arrested from outside Shrijee Restaurant near Lokhandwala in Mumbai Monday.

According to the police, Aggarwal had taken millions of rupees from thousands of people on the pretext of giving them luxurious apartments and land in Mumbai, Mohali, Dehradun and Patna.

Aggarwal, a charted accountant, who has an office at Barakhamba Road in Connaught Place is a resident of south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area and originally hails from Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

He was declared proclaimed offender by the Delhi High Court in 2006. Delhi Police had announced Rs.50,000 award for his arrest.

Aggarwal was wanted in 13 criminal cases.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar Verma said he took Rs.51,000 to Rs. 700,000 from over 5,000 people on the pretext of giving them apartments and land in Mumbai, Mohali, Dehradun and Patna.

'Aggarwal offered pre-launch option in various projects at Dehradun, Panvel (Mumbai), Mohali and Patna and issued advertisements promising a high quality of life in these townships,' Verma said.

'The investors were assured that the company had land, license, registration certificate, land-use-change and all other basic and legal requirements for developing such townships,' he added.

The police said various amenities like swimming pool, hospitals, schools, club, shopping sites etc were also proposed in the brochures and print media advertisements released by the company.

'But the company had no land, no license, no land-use-change and all these promises were false and intended to cheat gullible investors,' Verma said.

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