07 June,2015 07:50 AM IST | | Vinay Dalvi
Six months after reporting the incident at the Shivaji Nagar police station, no action has been taken against the fraudster
A builder fleeced three policemen six months ago, and in spite of reporting the crime at the Shivaji Park police station, their own department chose to sit on the case, giving the swindler enough time to flee the city.
The three constables, Sunil Kadu, attached with the Local Arms of the Mumbai Police; Prakash Patil, attached with the Local Arms unit 1; and Rajendra Kumar Patil, attached with the Juhu police station; went to a property exhibition in January, 2013. There they came across a stall by Morya Tech Infra Private Ltd, which offered houses in Khandeshwar, Navi Mumbai, at a throwaway price of Rs 20 lakh.
Finding the offer too good to resist, the three policemen visited proprietor Avinash Raskar's office at Sada Sundar apartment, Keluskar Marg, Shivaji Park. There they were told that it was a limited period offer and they should pay a part amount and book their houses. "Kadu Paid Rs 2,50,000, Prakash Patil paid Rs 4,00,000, I paid Rs 2,50,000," said Rajendra. Along with the trio, two of their friends, Sudhakar Jadhav and Santosh Mhatre also paid Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 3,00,000 respectively.
After paying the initial booking amounts they started getting calls from the builder to pay the remaining amount. They were told that failing to do so, their bookings would be cancelled. "Raskar had promised to hand over possession of the houses by May, 2014. When nothing happened, we decided to meet him. On June 14,2014 he told us that the construction work on the same will begin soon.We waited till November, but there was no progress. We asked him to return our booking amounts to which he gave us cheques that bounced. After this, whenever we tried to meet him, we were told that he was out of town," said Kadu.
Finally the three constables submitted an application at the Shivaji Park police station in December 2014, asking the department to take action against the builder. However, the police did not take any step. "It has been six months and they are yet to register an FIR in the case. Today there is a board outside the Raskar's office saying that his Leave and Licence agreement has been terminated due to non payment of rent and the flat is now rented to someone else," said Patil.
Suresh Ukhirde, assistant police inspector of Shivaji Park police station said, "We have not registered an FIR but we will arrest the builder. He will not flee far from the police."
