Man held for duping visually impaired woman of Rs 14.5 lakh in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A visually impaired woman in Delhi was duped of Rs 14.5 lakh in a fake property deal, leading to the arrest of a 51-year-old man and the uncovering of a wider fraud worth nearly Rs 2 crore, police said on Thursday.The accused, identified as Ravindra Garg, a resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, was apprehended by a police team last week.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, 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, police added.