Rs 80 cr real estate fraud in city

Jaipur,May 24: In a major jolt to the depressed real estate market in the city, more than 1,000 investors were allegedly duped of at least Rs 80 crore by a big-time city realtor, the Narayan Group. Some others were also duped by Subhash Sindhi co-operative society and Mahaveer Nagar housing co-operative society.

The shocking property fraud came to the light when the Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested six persons, including Narayan Group’s owners Gyanchand Agrawal and his partner Sanjay Gupta, on Saturday. The SOG claimed the proprietors of Narayan Group have confessed to duping at least 1,000 investors. However, the number could be higher.

According to SOG, the Narayan Group issued lease deeds to more than 2,200 people. “After the group made huge profits in a project called Narayan Vihar A, B, C and D blocks in Mansarovar, they announced some more schemes, but in these schemes, they issued fraudulent lease deeds to people without having enough land,” said ADG (SOG) Kapil Garg.

The SOG said the group invited investment from people in their new projects, including Narayan City in Vaishali Nagar, Narayan Sarovar in Mansarovar and Y Block of Narayan Vihar (Narayan Infinity) in Muhana.

“Of the 2,200 people who had invested in the projects, many were given plots elsewhere instead of the places where they had been promised plots, while more than 1,000 people were not given possession at all,” said Garg.

He added that three persons — Gyanchand Agrawal, Sanjay Gupta and one employee, Ravindra Pal Singh — of Narayan Group, were arrested. “We have seized documents related to properties and prima facie it seems that the number of those duped could be much higher than 1,000,” the ADG said.

“The maximum number of fraudulent lease deeds were issued between 2004 and 2006. We are estimating the total value of fraud, but it seems that it must be more than Rs 80-85 crore,” said SP (SOG) Hawa Singh.

In another fraud, one Jeevraj Singh approached the SOG alleging that proprietor of the Mahaveer Nagar housing co-operative society Nankishor Mittal took Rs 7.20 lakh from him for a plot at Shriram Ki Nagala in Sanganer, but did not give him possession. The SOG arrested Nandkishor and two others —Vipin and Shailendra.

—Agencies