The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch has arrested a builder Amaresh Chandra Sarangi from Bhubaneswar on the charge of duping people of about Rs 1.16 crore on the plea of selling them flats.

The accused, a native of Nuagan Barabati village under the Fategarh police station in Nayagarh district, was produced before the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Court in Cuttack on Friday.

A case has been registered under Sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of IPC r.w. Section 6 of OPID Act in this connection.

As per the complaint, Amaresh along with three other aides cheated him and many others of Rs 1.16 crore on the assurance of providing flats in their project Basera Fresco at Sijua in the capital city.

During probe, it was found that one Prakash Panda and his brother Subha Shankar Panda had booked a 3BHK flat in Basera Fresco, a project of Basera Designs (P) Ltd, for Rs 41.50 lakh. Accordingly, an agreement for acquisition of ownership in the apartment was executed with the MD of Basera Designs Pvt Ltd on April 25 and a flat was allotted to the complainant with the condition that the flat would be handed over by June 30, 2017.

A housing loan of Rs 32 lakh was availed by the complainant from the Allahabad Bank for the purpose and a tripartite agreement between the bank, builder and the complainant was also signed, in which the present accused was a witness. Then, the bank released Rs 18.50 lakh, which was credited to the account of Basera Designs Pvt Ltd.

However, the accused persons neither handed over the flat to the complainant nor did they return the money received from the complainant. 

The accused also did not renew the approval of the BDA and later closed their office at Palasuni here and went underground. The complainant is still continuing to repay the loan with interest.