70-year-old man held for duping woman of Rs 20 cr

New Delhi: A 70-year-old man was arrested from Shahdara for allegedly duping a woman of Rs 20 crore in the grab of investment in his granite mine in Rajasthan, police said on Tuesday.

The accused has been identified as Pradeep Paliwal, a resident of Vasant Vihar, they said.

He was also wanted in four other cases and duped people to the tune of around Rs 100 crore, police said.

In January 2014, Paliwal assured complainant Shakuntala to invest Rs 20 crore in his business of granite mining in Rajasthan and assured that he would pay her Rs 50 lakh per month, police said.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was executed between them on February 28, 2014. On March 3, 2014, Paliwal got executed a sale deed in respect of 1.4 hectares land in Bhilwara district, Rajasthan in favour of the complainant for consideration of Rs 21 lakh, a senior police officer said.

The accused failed to fulfill his promise to the complainant, following which a case was registered. Paliwal cheated the complainant of Rs 20 crore, the officer said.

According to police, Paliwal hatched a conspiracy and lured the complainant to invest Rs 20 crore through misrepresentation. After duping the complainant, he started shifting his hideouts from Delhi to many states for the last seven years.

He stayed in several states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi. As he was a wanted criminal, he used to travel in these states by a SUV just to avoid flights or trains as look out circular was issued against him, police said.

Police said that the accused was using Telegram accounts connected with unknown source of internet and also used WhatsApp account with the mobile number of Zimbabwe.

During investigation, his source of internet was identified and found that these numbers were registered on fake IDs, they said, adding he was using Telegram/WhatsApp to contact his business associates to avoid his location to be detected.

The location of Paliwal was traced near Park Hotel, Shahdara. All vehicles parked in hotel were checked where one white Pajero with Rajasthan number was found there. The car was registered in the name of Shradha Jain who is a business associate of Paliwal, police said.

Later, Paliwal was nabbed near Cross River Mall, Karkardooma in Shahdara, along with his associate Vinayak Bhatt.

Bhatt was handed over to CBI as he was wanted in a CBI case, Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Chhaya Sharma said.

Paliwal has business of granite mining and real estate for the last 20 years and hails from Ajmer, Rajasthan. His father also had business of iron and steel, they said.