The Odisha crime branch’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday arrested a builder for allegedly duping investors of Rs 15 crore.
The accused has been identified as Santosh Kumar Rath, the additional director of a real estate company M/s Mishra Creations Pvt. Ltd.
The EOW in a press release said: “A case has been registered on the basis of the written allegation of Swadesh Ray Chaudhury of Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar regardingthe cheating to him and aswell as other investors in the name of giving flats in the project ‘UTOPIA’ at Chandaka of M/s Mishra Creations Pvt. Ltd.”
Swadesh booked a flat in the above-said project in 2016 and paid Rs 16 lakh as advance. He has incurred a bank loan to give the advance and has also entered into a tripartite agreement with the builder and the bank.
“The flat was to be handed over within 30 months, but till date no flat was given to him by the company nor he was refunded the invested amount. The arrested accused Rath was looking after the marketing of UTOPIA project situated at Chandaka,” said the release.
Rath along with MD Jyoti Ranjan Mishra has collected more than Rs 15 crore from more than 130 investors from 2016 onwards to provide them with flats in the project ‘UTOPIA’ at Anlapatna, Chandaka, on the outskirts of the city. It was promised by the real estate company to hand over the flats within 30 months of booking, the EOW said.
After taking almost 95% of the total cost of the flats, the real estate company did not hand over any single flat to the investors even after the elapse of eight years and was giving false assurance to deliver the flat from time to time under different pretexts.
