Durg, May 11 (PTI) The Chhattisgarh police have arrested a former civic officer and his son from neighbouring Maharashtra for allegedly cheating around 50 people to the tune of Rs 1.50 crore five years ago, police said on Wednesday.
Bhupendra Kumar Soni (63) and his son Varun Kumar (42), who hail from Bhilai city of Durg district, had left their hometown in 2017 and shifted to Maharashtra’s Pune after allegedly duping people, a police official said on Wednesday.
The police swung into action after one Hitesh Bakshi recently lodged a complaint at Supela police station, claiming that he had struck a deal with Soni to purchase the latter’s house in 2017 and paid Rs 15 lakh as token, but the family went missing after taking money from him, Durg superintendent of police Abhishek Pallava said.
During the investigation, the police zeroed in on Soni’s location in Pune and sent a team to arrest them, he said.
The accused were brought to Durg on Tuesday.
On interrogation, Bhupendra, who was a deputy superintendent in the Bhilai Municipal Corporation, informed that his son was operating a transportation business in Odisha and suffered a huge loss, following which the duo mortgaged their house in Nehru Nagar area to the bank.
The accused allegedly took Rs 15 lakh from Baskhi on the pretext of selling their mortgaged house to him, he said.
Bhupendra borrowed money from around 50 people, including his office colleagues, in Durg and Bhilai, and planned an escape. The Soni family shifted to Pune where Varun started contractor work with the embezzled money, he said.
On learning about the arrest, three more people have lodged complaints against the accused for cheating, Pallava said.
The duo also has unpaid property and vehicle loans, details of which are being gathered, he said.
The father and son have been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC based on Bakshi’s complaint, the official said, adding that further investigation is underway. PTI COR TKP ARU ARU
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