MAPUSA
Four Goans ganged up to dupe an NRI couple from Calangute of Rs 2.58 crore on the pretext of selling properties that they did not own.
Porvorim police, who dragged their feet for six months, finally registered a case against the accused for impersonating themselves as legal owner of properties and trying to dishonestly sell them to the victim couple.
The accused were identified as Alex Camilo Rodrigues of Saligao, Shyam Chandrakant Bagli and Saliksha Shyam Bagli of Pernem and Rajendra Pandurang Toraskar a resident of Tivim.
Among the four accused, Shyam Bagli and Rajendra Toraskar have several cases of cheating and fraud against them at different police stations in the State.
The police said the accused with their common intention impersonated themselves as legal right holders of the properties bearing survey no 274/1 in Tivim and survey no 203/4 in Siolim and dishonestly induced the NRI couple, Alfredo Fernandes and Arlette Carvalho, who are permanent residents of Calangute, to purchase the properties and fraudulently accepted an amount of Rs 2.58 crore through various bank transactions in a bid to seal the property deal.
According to the complainant, A Carvalho, who is related to the NRI couple and represents them in the case, the alleged accused Alex Rodrigues was known to the couple for the last several years.
He said, in 2019, when the NRI couple was down in Goa they met the alleged accused Alex Rodrigues and expressed their wish of acquiring a property with clear title.
“Within days, Alex came with a proposal of prime land for sale in Tivim which he said was owned by one Rajendra Toraskar. But days later he did a flip flop and informed that Rajendra was not the owner but held power of attorney of the property,” Carvalho said in his complaint.
Although, initially, the couple was hesitant in dealing with the property, the alleged accused managed to win over their confidence and coaxed them to part away with Rs 10 lakh at various stages through bank transactions to seal the deal.
The complainant further informed that even while the process to seal the Tivim property deal was going on, the alleged accused Alex pitched to the couple about another land for sale in Siolim for a “good price”.
“Alex informed the NRI couple of a property in Siolim which is sub-divided into several plots and that they would get it at a very cheap rate as the owner was in need of money to settle some Income Tax problems,” the complainant said in his statement.
He said the alleged accused Alex introduced the other accused Shyam Bagli as the owner of the Siolim property to the NRI couple. The unsuspecting couple fell for the trap and agreed to buy the Siolim property as well.
What followed were several bank transactions where the NRI couple transferred monies to the bank accounts of Shyam Bagli and his wife Saliksha Bagli totalling Rs 2.48 crore.
Incidentally, the NRI couple saved all the screenshots of various correspondences via WhatsApp and SMS and oral conversations between them and the alleged accused and produced these before the police as evidence.
Porvorim PI Neenad Deulkar confirmed that an FIR has been registered against the four accused under section 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
“A case of cheating and misappropriation has been registered against four persons. The accused have taken the money but failed to transfer the land in the name of the complainants. Neither have they returned their money back. We are investigating into the matter,” Deulkar said.
So far no arrests have been made.
