Odisha realtor Satyabrata Dhir arrested for Rs 20 lakh fraud

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 14:

Odisha police today arrested a city-based realtor for allegedly duping customers to the tune of Rs 20 lakh.

Commissionerate police arrested Satyabrata Dhir, the Director of Trishna Real Estate (P) Ltd, from his IRC Village residence here this morning on charges of duping customers.

“I had booked a property in a housing project in Kantabada in the city for which I have paid Rs 8 lakh in phases. They were supposed to hand over the property in June 2014. But, they stopped the construction work. I visited the site and their office several times and they didn’t respond to my queries. I even asked them to refund my money. When they didn’t lend an ear, I took the shelter of law. I have all the documents with me,” complainant Biswaketan Bebarta said.

Notably, as many as seven warrants have been issued by several police stations in Balasore and Bhubaneswar.

“Several customers are cancelling their bookings. The real estate market is at low now. It has become difficult to sell a property. In this scenario, how can we refund the entire amount to them? Till now, we have refunded around Rs 10 crore to the customers” a staff of the real estate firm said.

It may be recalled that Dhir was quizzed by CBI in 2014 for his alleged links with the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group, a major player in the multi-crore chit fund scam in Odisha.  The CBI had also raided his house here in the capital city on August 16, 2014.

Dhir who is also a director of Sparsh Hospitals & Critical Care Private Limited was also interrogated by the Commissionerate Police for his AT Group links.

Dhir’s name was among the 22 persons named by AT Group chief Pradeep Kumar Sethy those who had financially benefitted from him. He had appeared before Kharvela Nagar police on June 5, 2013 and had claimed that the AT Group chief owes him money contrary to Sethi’s statement to police that he diverted crores of rupees into real estate and other businesses.