Fraud Estate Agents & Owner Arrested for Duping Actor.
Mira Road : The Kashigaon Police have successfully arrested three accused and recovered Rs. 16.5 lakhs of a 30-year-old Actor who was duped by the gang of fraud estate agents and flat owner in Mira Road.
Resident of Andheri, Gurudev Sodhi (30), a small time Actor, who was aspiring to buy a flat at Mira Road found a listing of on the Instagram reel regarding sale of flat at 23rd floor of JP North Aviva building for just rupees 51 lakhs. Accordingly, he contacted estate agent Abhinav Mishra aka Nishant Mishra.
Mishra showed him the flat and introduced a person Vijay Ghant as the flat's owner. The actor finalized the flat and paid 13 lakhs in the account of Vijay Ghant who was introduced as the owner.
Also, the Actor paid ₹3,50,000 as told by the estate agent for flat registration. The said amount was paid online in the bank account of one Hitesh Tiwari who was introduced as advocate and will be looking after the registration part.
Tiwari is now said to be the wanted accused in the crime. The Actor was informed that the flat documents will be given for home loan in two days.
When the Actor received the documents of the flat for home loan, he was convinced that the said documents were fake, so he called the estate agent Abhinav Mishra and the room owner Vijay Ghant, but their phones were switched off.
He went to J.P. North Aviva Building and verified the ownership of the Flat. It was found that the Flat belonged to Ajay Vishwakarma. At that time, the complainant was convinced that estate agent Abhinav Mishra had prepared fake documents and entered into a deal to sell the flat with the impersonated owner, defrauding him of Rs.16,50,000.
On November 5, 2024, a case was registered against them at Kashigaon Police Station under Sections 318(4), 316(2), 319(2), 336(2), 338 and 61 of the BNS Act 2023. The investigation by Police Sub-Inspector Abhijeet Lande of the Crime Detection Unit led to the arrest of trio: Abhinav Mishra aka Nishant Mishra (29), Avinash Dhole (47), and Vijay Ghant (37), residents of Nalasopara, Mira Road & Nalasopara respectively.
The money was recovered from the arrested accused, who are serial offenders with multiple cases against them at Kashimira, Mira Road, Nalasopara, Arnala and Bolinj Police Stations. Another accused, Hitesh Tiwari, will be arrested soon as he is still absconding, said a police official.
The Police Commissioner of Mira-Bhayander Vasai Virar Police Commissionerate has appealed to citizens to verify the authenticity of estate agents and flat owners before entering into any transactions, as the police have received numerous complaints of similar frauds.
