Mahim’s Bunty caught, Babli secures bail

Suresh Pawar

The Mahim police have traced the couple who cheated people on the pretext of offering them flats for cheaper rates. The police arrested Suresh Dattaram Pawar while his wife has secured anticipatory bail from the Bombay High Court. They said the Pawars took in all about Rs 2 crore from people.

In the month of November, a total of 16 people had lodged a complaint at the Mahim police station accusing Pawar and his wife of duping them of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of getting them houses at cheaper rates. mid-day had reported this, Couple cheats homebuyers of R2 crore by offering cheap MMRDA flats, on November 24.

There are 20 complainants in the case involving Sheela and Suresh Pawar

Pawar was arrested on Tuesday night near Mahim. When the case was registered against him, there were a total of 16 complainants, but since the investigation started, their number has increased to 20.

The police said after taking lakhs of rupees from a complainant, Pawar had given her the keys to a flat, but when she went to see it, she found it was already occupied and the person claimed to be the owner. "When the papers were checked, we found it did not belong to the woman, but Pawar had given the keys to her. We are probing from where he got the keys to the flat," said a police official.

Pawar's wife Sheela, who is a government employee, is also an accused in this case. She had filed for anticipatory bail in the sessions court, which rejected it, and she then went to the HC. She got bail from the HC on Wednesday evening.

Counselspeak

The counsel for the complainants, Mahendra Nayak, told mid-day that many other people besides the Pawars are involved in the case. Nayak said, "This is a big scam which should be investigated at a higher level."

Police Inspector Dinesh Dahatonde of the Mahim police station said, "We arrested Suresh Pawar and produced him in court which has given him four days' police custody. We are probing all aspects in this matter. We are also finding what Pawar did with the money he took from the complainants."

Rs 2cr
Amount the Pawars allegedly took from the complainants