Two arrested for duping over 1,000 investors
NOIDA: Two men were arrested Noida’s Sector 18 Saturday evening for allegedly duping over 1,000 potential homebuyers across Delhi-ncr by showing them “fake” properties and running away with the token money.
The accused, Amit Singh from Mirzapur, and Anubhav Srivastava from Gonda, were arrested by a Sector 20 police team outside the ICICI Bank in Sector 18. Both are in their mid-twenties and lived in a rented accommodation in Noida’s Harola village. According to the police, the two are allegedly part of a gang involved in duping potential homebuyers after stealing their data from the internet. “We received a tip from an informant that two persons allegedly belonging to a gang committing fraud will come to the bank in Sector 18. We laid a trap and arrested them. The duo is allegedly a part of a six member gang which has been running a fraud office by the name of “Diamond City” in RZ block of Jagdamba Vihar in West Sagarpur in Delhi,” Manoj Pant, station house officer, Sector 20 police station, said.
The police said they recovered ₹8 lakh in cash, 17 cheque books of different banks, 18 letter heads of the counterfeit company, 11 stamps, 24 debit and credit cards, 15 mobile phones and one laptop.
The other four persons of the gang were identified as Prakash, Kunal, Akhilesh and Gaurav, who are on the run.
Circle officer 1 Avnish Kumar said, “Prakash is allegedly the brain behind the gang as he used to steal contacts of potential homebuyers from the internet and prepare a list. Then, Ankit allegedly used to call these potential buyers and fix a meeting with Kunal, Akhilesh and Gaurav, who posed as property agents of “Diamond City”. Then Amit and Anubhav – allegedly used to masquerade as owners of the plot and influence buyers to submit token money ranging from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh. They allegedly used stamps on fake property papers to deliver them to the victims.”
The police said whenever a buyer pressurised the accused for possession or a refund, they allegedly used to issue long term cheques to bank accounts which had insufficient funds.
Amit and Anubhav have been booked under sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 for fraud, forgery for valuable security, forgery for cheating and using as genuine a forged document of the Indian Penal Code.