Ashok Ghadei. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 24: The economic offence wing of the crime branch arrested a builder for allegedly cheating a non-residential Indian (NRI) woman of Rs 4 crore using fake land documents.

The accused, Ashok Ghadei, 45, of Kendrapara was sent to jail after his bail plea was rejected today. The investigating agency seized the fake documents along with his car.

Ghadei, managing director of Saheed Nagar-based Darubrahma Builders, had assured the complainant, a Qatar-based doctor Subhra Mohanty, of 100 acres near Cuttack. The doctor, whose husband is a businessman in the Middle East, wanted the land to set up a health related non-governmental organisation. Following an agreement in 2011, she deposited Rs 4 crore with the builder through bank deposits and cash payments between 2011 and 2012.

“Our team checked the documents and found that Ghadei had cheated the woman. We arrested him yesterday from Bhubaneswar, and he was produced before court today,” said deputy inspector general of the wing Rajesh Kumar.

The officials are verifying the role of other people in this crime. “We have information that he was assisted by a few others,” said Kumar.

The police said the builder, in the first phase, provided her seven acres having valid records. Subsequently, he gave doctored documents for 93 acres. During verification of land records, she got to know that the papers were fake.

“She complained to us that she had got the land documents verified with the government records. While few of these documents are found to be legal, the rest are forged,” said an official, adding that the woman tried to contact the builder. But, he did not respond to her efforts.

The victim, who hailed from Palaspalli, came to Odisha to meet Ghadei, who used to run a fortnightly newspaper for a brief period and boast himself as a mediaperson. He threatened the woman of dire consequences if she tried to pursue the matter further. He closed his office in Saheed Nagar last year.

Initially, she lodged a complaint with Lalbag police in Cuttack. The case was transferred to the crime branch wing in February.

The wing registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.