Lucknow: Six men dupe 20 homebuyers of Rs 10 lakh each

LUCKNOW: Six persons were booked for duping 20 people of Rs 10 lakh each on the pretext of investment in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, in Gudamba area on Saturday.

Those booked, under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (breach of trust), included Devkush of Aliganj, Vivekanand and Manish Srivastava of Gudamba, Jai Prakash, Ved Prakash and Virendra Kumar Sharma. The complainant, Raghvendra Tiwari of Gudamba, who works in LDA, said he had invested Rs 10 lakh in the Sankalp Awas Group and Devanchal Group run by above said persons.

“The accused promised to facilitate houses under the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana scheme but did nothing. The money was given in phases through cheque, DD and RTGS. They had promised that they will get us a rebate of Rs 2.5 lakh in the scheme. They also had promised to give house measuring 374 sq ft in Paikramau locality. But three years have passed since then. They are not attending calls nor refunding the money,” he alleged.

As many as 20 others have been duped in a similar manner by the gang, police said. Tiwari said he came in contact with the gang through one of its members Ved Prakash in January 2020. To appear genuine, the gang had published brochures.