Bengaluru police have charged Sneha Rakesh and Rajath Venkatesh, two directors of a private firm with a real estate fraud of ₹17.5 crores in Bangalore area. They booked the case against these two directors of a private company, a real estate agent and other unknown accused persons. It is a case related to a huge residential property sale in Banashankari 2nd Stage, one of the city’s mature residential areas.
According to the police, the accused are Sneha Rakesh and Rajath Venkatesh, the directors of Akarmaxs Tech Pvt. Ltd., and Robin Francis, a real estate agent, who allegedly facilitated the deal. The police claim that the trio has been charged with various offenses under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that comprise those related to criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy.
The first information report (FIR) complaint mentions that the complainant was the owner of a property of around 16,990 square feet in Banashankari 2nd Stage. The defendants through the real estate agent came to the complainant with an offer to purchase the property. After the bargaining, the parties settled on a sale consideration of ₹17.5 crore.
The deal was made official with the signing of the sale deed on November 23, 2022, at the Shantinagar sub-registrar’s office. The sale deed reflected the negotiated amount, and the property rights were lawfully handed over to the new owners.
However, the complainant alleges that even after completion of the registration process, the sale consideration was not paid. According to the FIR, the accused had issued four cheques for the payment of the agreed amount. However, all of the four cheques were dishonoured when the complainant presented the cheques for encashment. The bank, however, said that the differences in signatures were the reason why the cheques were returned unpaid.
The complainant said that on the occasion of the cheque bouncing, he called the accused an endless number of times to pay him. The accused allegedly kept giving the complainant promises and explanations and citing different reasons for the delay, but they did not pay even after several follow-up visits.
The complainant in his affidavit, additionally, alleges that the accused has been using the property during the time, by which he mentions that he has incurred a substantial financial loss. It is stated that when the payment request was made by the complainant, the accused are alleged to have threatened and intimidated the complainant, who then filed a complaint at the police station. After receiving the complaint, Banashankari police registered a case under Sections 406, 420, 506, and 120B of the IPC. A written report of the incident has been recorded by the police under these sections. Police opens an investigation to understand the events better, review the transaction records, and ascertain the position of the accused.
An officer working on the case told The Hindu that they have made a lot of information and clarification requests to the complainant to have a solid case. But it is said that the complainant didn't reply to their most recent request for details. The official went on to say that this kind of information is key to showing the accused's intention and to finding out if they purposely plotted the fraud.
Economic offense cases with an amount exceeding ₹10 crores are generally transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for in-depth investigation. However, according to the police, this case is still under the jurisdiction of the city police, and a decision on its handing over to a specialized agency will be taken afte the preliminary examination.
Bangalore has been witnessing a constant trend of real estate frauds involving cheque dishonor and delayed payments, particularly in luxury property transactions. Legal experts say that even though cheque bounce instances are usually registered under the Negotiable Instruments Act, if these cases involve fraud, trust misuse, and threat, then they should be taken as serious criminal offenses.
The police are going solicit evidence against all the persons involved in this case through the recording of their statements. Besides this, as an investigation part, the police will look through the money-related documents, phone records, and usage of the properties. No news has been received about any arrests till now, and the accused, apart from refraining from giving any comments, have also not made any statements.
Further developments in the case are awaited as the investigation progresses.
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