"Everyone in Mumbai in ardent need of residence": Mumbai court denies pre-arrest bail to 5 accused of duping homebuyers

A Mumbai sessions court recently denied pre-arrest bail to five persons accused of duping several people by promising them Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority (MHADA) flats at cheaper rates. [Sujata Sunil Ghatvisave vs State of Maharashtra].Additional sessions judge MG Deshpande passed the order after observing that often the hard earned money of innocent people in Mumbai go waste as such 'cheaters' dupe them.."In Mumbai, everyone is in ardent need of permanent ownership residence and people like present accused gain confidence and cheat the needy. The hard earned life earnings of people like the informant, go waste and such people never get any house or even refund of their money. On the contrary, cheaters like the accused get easy money by such offences," the court observed in its order passed on July 13..The court noted that the all the five accused had a dishonest intention to cheat innocent persons right from the beginning.Therefore, the accused gained the homebuyer's confidence by impersonating officials of the MHADA, the Court observed. It further noted that the accused managed to procure huge sums of money from various persons with false identity cards.."In Mumbai, such incidents are frequently happening. Granting Anticipatory Bail to the people like applicant who have been involved in such scams will ultimately amount putting premium on their criminal activities," the court added..The main accused in the case, Sunil Ghatvisave, had allegedly offered the complainant, a resident of Dadar, a flat in suburban Parel area under the MHADA scheme, for ₹30 lakh in 2017. The complainant, paid the initial ₹19 lakh through cheques and the remaining ₹12 lakhs were paid after taking loans from various relatives. During the probe, it transpired that around ₹14 lakh was transferred to the account of the the wife of the prime accused, Sunil. The wife was one of the applicants before the court seeking pre-arrest bail.The bench observed that taking money to cheat the informant, prima facie, indicated the dishonest intention of the accused right from the beginning."All this clearly indicates that the applicant had syphoned of money which he has collected from the informant and his friends who were in ardent need of ownership house at reasonable price in Prabhadevi area. The investigation is at a very preliminary stage and the material on record, indicates a well calculated and well planned syndicate for cheating people like informant and his friends by taking disadvantage of their ardent need (sic)," the court underscored in its order..The court refused to accept the contention of the five accused (applicants) that they had no knowledge of the cheating offence being committed by Sunil and that they had merely received money from his accounts.Receiving amounts in bank accounts, prima-facie, reflected that all the applicant-accused had concrete knowledge of the purpose for which money was transferred in their accounts, the court opined. Therefore, it is a clear case of cheating where the hard earned life earnings of people like informant and his friends were taken, the Court noted.It, therefore, proceeded to dismiss the anticipatory bail application in respect of all five applicants. .Advocate Rahul S Arote appeared for the applicants.Additional Public Prosecutor Rashmi Tendulkar represented the State..[Read Order]