Delhi: Visually impaired woman cheated of Rs 14.5 lakh in property fraud; 1 held

A 51-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating a visually impaired woman of Rs 14.5 lakh on the pretext of leasing a residential property in central Delhi, officials said on Thursday.

The arrest unearthed a wider fraud of nearly Rs 2 crore involving multiple victims, they said.

The accused, as Ravindra Garg, a resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, was apprehended by a team last week, they added.

According to police, the case was registered on December 29, last year, after the complainant, an Indian Railways employee, reported being duped in a fraudulent lease deal.

“Garg had offered a property located at Joshi Road in Karol Bagh and executed a notarised lease deed after finalising the deal for Rs 14.5 lakh. However, when the woman went to take possession, she discovered that the property had already been taken over by a finance company due to a loan default,” they said.

An investigation revealed that the accused had availed a home loan of Rs 98 lakh in 2017 and the property had been repossessed, facts he deliberately concealed while striking the deal, an officer said.

A police team analysed call detail records of multiple mobile numbers used by the accused, who had been frequently changing SIM cards and locations to evade arrest.

“His location was eventually traced to Nangal Devat village in Delhi, where he was found working as a taxi driver and was arrested,” the officer said.

During interrogation, Garg disclosed that he had cheated several people using a similar modus operandi by offering the same property for lease or sale, collecting money, and then absconding, the police said.

Garg had earlier been declared a proclaimed offender in another property fraud case by a Delhi court. Efforts are underway to trace the cheated money, they said.