Ex-official of Thane co-operative bank among three booked for duping flat buyers

An official on Saturday said that the police have registered a case against three persons including a developer and a former senior official of a Thane cooperative bank in Maharashtras Thane city for allegedly cheating 18 persons to the tune of over Rs 4 crore under the pretext of giving them flats reported news agency PTIHe said that the fraud took place between February 2017 and June 2024The accused were identified as Santosh Baburao Waghmare alias Tigerbhai owner and partner of several construction firms Vinayak Digambar Wakankar former assistant general manager of the Thane cooperative bank and Jagdish Bhale the then senior clerk in the bank he added reported PTIAs per the complaint Waghmare had promised to hand over flats to the victims in his projects and taken money from them He along with the other accused later got loans sanctioned from the Thane cooperative bank by forging their signatures and indulged in a fraud to the tune of Rs 41091273 reported PTIOnce the loan was sanctioned by the Thane cooperative bank the money used to be deposited into the bank accounts of Waghmares firms without the knowledge of the victims As the accused failed to give them the flats the victims realised that they had been cheated One of the victims then approached the police and lodged the complaint reported PTIBased on the complaint the Rabodi police registered the case on Thursday under Indian Penal Code IPC sections 420 cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property 465 467 and 468 all pertaining to forgery 120B criminal conspiracy and others the police saidIn another case the police on Friday said that a 68yearold tution teacher in Mumbai was allegedly cheated of more than Rs 8 lakh by a fraudster who befriended her on Facebook by posing as a pilot with an international airline reported news agency PTIAn official said that the Mumbai senior citizen lodged a complaint at Mahim police station on Thursday reported PTIShe received a friend request on Facebook from one Dev Patel on May 12 as per her complaint reported PTIShe accepted it and soon the two started chatting on phone with the man claiming that he was a pilot with British Airways reported PTIA few days later the man told her that he had sent her a giftOn May 30 the complainant received a call The Mumbai senior citizen on the other end who identified herself as Dikshita Arora from Delhi Customs said a parcel had arrived in her name from Dubai but she would have to deposit Rs 70000 to get it reported PTIThe complainant immediately sent Rs 70000 through UPI Next she was told that there were 80 British pound sterlings inside the parcel sent illegally and she will have to pay another Rs 295 lakh or the crime branch will arrest her reported PTIFrightened the Mumbai senior citizen paid multiple times as threats kept coming Between June 1 to 10 she transferred almost Rs 815 lakh before realising that this was a scam the police official said reported PTIThe Facebook friend who had posed as a pilot had stopped responding to her calls and messages in the meanwhileA case of cheating under IPC section 420 was registered and probe was on the official saidWith inputs from PTI