Realtor arrested for second time for fraudulent land deal

OST Crime Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Sept 23:

Saheed Nagar police arrested Simax Builder Private Limited managing director Nirmal Kumar Behera (42) for the second time in two months on Monday on charges of duping a person of Rs 5 lakh in fraudulent land deals.

Behera had earlier been arrested on August 10 for duping two customers named Saroj Kumar Kar of Kabisuryanagar in Ganjam district and Braja Ballabh Bhanja of Dumduma here of around Rs 7 lakhs by promising them land. Kar, a defence personnel in the rank of Wing Commander, had invested Rs. 2.62 lakh for purchase of a 16-plot land while Bhanja had invested Rs. 4.40 lakh for 5 plots. He had later been released on bail.

According to Saheed Nagar Police, Behera, a resident of Balianta on the outskirts of the city who was running his office at Plot no 6 in Saheed Nagar, had duped one of his customers named Jagdish Gupta of Muradkhan Patna under Malgodown police station in Cuttack district of around Rs 5 lakhs by promising him a 2, 000 sq ft piece of land in Chandaka area.

After failing to get either the promised plot or the money deposited for it even two years after paying the money, Gupta lodged FIR against Behera at the Saheed Nagar police station here today.

Acting on the complaint, police conducted raids on the Simax office and arrested its MD from its Plot no.-6 office. The police interrogated the builder.

Investigation is on for information on the builder’s other land transactions, said the police.