Mumbai: A 37-year-old man from Kurla has allegedly been cheated of ₹13.94 lakh after being promised a flat at a subsidized rate under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme.
The accused claimed that the flat was allotted through MHADA and demanded payments in the name of MHADA’s Vice President. The Nehru Nagar Police have registered an FIR and are probing whether any MHADA officials were involved in the fraud.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Jitendra Patel, works as a Sales Manager at a Pune-based company, Clinics on Cloud, and resides in Kurla’s Nehru Nagar area. His family owns a general store on S.G. Barve Marg. During the construction of the nearby Hira Manthan building, he came into contact with contractor Rajendra Pujari (39), who frequently visited his shop.
In November 2022, Pujari informed Jitendra about a man named Kishore Wagh (48), who had been allotted a room under the SRA project in Kurla’s Bail Bazar area. He claimed that in exchange, Wagh would be given a new flat in a MHADA building opposite Kohinoor Hospital in Kurla West. Pujari offered to help Patel acquire that flat at a lower price, citing personal connections with MHADA’s Vice President.
Pujari presented documents allegedly belonging to Wagh’s room and said that the room, once purchased, would be transferred in Patel's name with the help of MHADA officials. On December 23, 2022, he demanded ₹15 lakh, stating that ₹9–10 lakh would go to Wagh's account, ₹4.5 lakh to MHADA’s Vice President, and the remaining to himself.
Believing the deal was genuine, Jitendra Patel agreed to purchase room. He first transferred ₹1.63 lakh to the GPay account of Pujari's wife, Pratiksha, followed by ₹9.25 lakh via NEFT to Wagh’s account at the State Bank of India, Kurla West branch, between February 18 and April 29, 2023. An additional ₹2.5 lakh was handed over in cash near the BMC L Ward office in March 2023.
Despite repeated requests, Pujari never introduced Jitendra to Wagh nor facilitated any legal transfer. On May 27, 2023, Pujari took him to meet a person posing as Advocate Gaikwad outside Kurla Court and made Jitendra sign some documents, falsely claiming it was an agreement for the flat.
No flat was ever transferred, nor was any MHADA official involvement verified. When Jitendra demanded his money back, Pujari refused. Realizing he had been duped, Jitendra filed a complaint at Nehru Nagar Police Station against Rajendra Pujari, his wife Pratiksha, and Kishore Wagh for cheating him out of ₹13.94 lakh.
The police have registered a case on June 2, under Sections 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and are currently investigating the matter, including the possible involvement of MHADA officials in the scam
