A 56-year-old security guard’s dream of owning a home came crashing down after an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed that the land he believed he had purchased eight years ago was not legally in his name. Dnyaneshwar Dattaram Kalikhan, a resident of Worli Koliwada, alleged that he was cheated of Rs 27 lakh, his entire life savings, after being promised a plot in Titwala where a house would be built for his family.

Kalikhan, who works at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), told  the police he was introduced in 2017 to Janardhan Shivadikar and Vishwanath Keni, who claimed to be landowners and intermediaries. The plot, he said, was shown to him as a 14-gunta piece of land at Sangoda-Kondheri village in the Madha area of Titwala West, Kalyan taluka, Thane district. The accused allegedly assured him that a house would be constructed and the land would later be transferred in his name.