53-year-old dupes gullible investor of Rs 1.25 crore, held

New Delhi: A 53-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping a man of Rs 1.25 crore on the pretext of providing him 2.5 acre of agriculture land, police said on Thursday.

The victim, a prominent writer and motivator, submitted a complaint at the Vasant Vihar police station in which he stated that one Pankaj Dayal and his accomplices —  Pankaj Kumar Aggarwal, Parvinder Singh and Kapil Tyagi — cheated him of Rs 1.25 crore, the police added.

They promised to provide 2.5 acre of agriculture land at Jhatikra village in Najafgarh. The complainant repeatedly contacted the accused, but he never provided the promised land and also did not return his money, the police said.

The police raided several of his hideouts for the past one year. On May 14, the team began following the accused on the basis of a technical surveillance and chased him through Faridabad, Gurgaon and other parts of Haryana and eventually nabbed him when he was entering a five-star hotel in Nehru Place, said deputy commissioner of police, southwest, Milind Dumbere.

Dayal has several FIRs pending against him across Delhi and other states and has only appeared once in certain cases. He has been continuously evading appearing before the court, he said. Several non-bailable warrants have been issued in his name.

Dayal and his accomplices, who ran a sham construction company, Realtech Construction Ltd, among various other companies used to lure financially sound investors of south Delhi, said the DCP.

They promised the gullible investors of purchasing properties and seek advances and loans with the prospect of lucrative returns.

Dayal and his other co-accused partners, on the basis of false documents, approvals and title deeds duped various prominent investors from Delhi and led them to part with their savings with the intention of never returning the money, he added.