The Arnala police have arrested a conman who would allegedly cheat property owners on the pretext of buying their property or by giving them loans against their property papers and then mortgage the documents to secure bank loans for himself. The modus operandi of the fraudster, Sharad Amritlal Rochlaney, came to light in 2022, after bank employees arrived to seal an elderly woman’s house along with staff from the local tehsil office.

Arnala-based Vandanu Kadu (property owner) was in need of money for her husband’s treatment in 2014 and had given photocopies of her property documents along with a signature to Rochlaney for sale. Later, she managed to make arrangements for the money elsewhere and asked Rochlaney to return the documents. He informed her that they had been discarded as they were photocopies. However, he had mortgaged these for a loan of Rs 1.39 crore.