Rs 1,000 cr recovered in large-scale realty frauds

NEW DELHI: The economic slowdown resulted in large-scale frauds in the capital's real estate sector and investigations led to recovery of over Rs 1,000 crores, Delhi Police said on Thursday.

"A slow down in real estate sector led to large scale frauds with innocent investors wherein major builder companies defaulted on their commitments thereby causing huge losses to these investors," Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said.

The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police's Crime Branch took "stern action" against "unscrupulous" developers and builders to protect the interest of investors.

"The Anti Land and Building Racket Section of EoW seized properties and bank accounts of fraudsters worth over Rs 1,000 crore," Ranjit Narayan, Special Commissioner (Crime Branch), said. He said a massive drive was launched against land mafia who encroached unattended properties using forged documents.

The EoW has arrested a total of 195 people last year in connection with various types of economic frauds. The specialist wing investigated more than 1,400 cases besides enquiring into more than 2,990 complaints last year.

"This year EoW also had a sustained focus to initiate action against multi-level marketing scams wherein gullible investors were duped by persons running such schemes," he said.