Rs 50 crore Bengaluru property scam: Catena Homes owner arrested from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad

“Presently, he is in police custody, and we have asked the victims to submit their complaints. We will be doing a forensic audit to find the money trail as Keshavan now claims that he doesn’t have any money,” the officer added.

Also Read | Bengaluru property firm dupes hundreds in lease scam

Bengaluru property firm dupes hundreds in lease scam  

Three agents of the firm were arrested in the Catena Homes case in September this year.

What is the Catena Homes case?

Catena Homes allegedly offered houses on lease to residents, and told house owners that the units were being given on rent. Many residents, mostly migrants, had taken houses on lease from the firm in the Marathahalli, Banaswadi, Whitefield, and Electronic City areas of Bengaluru. People paid between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 50 lakh to get these houses on lease, according to the police.

The police said Catena Homes ran into losses during the COVID-19 lockdown as many of its clients went back to their home states. When the owners did not receive the rent money, they asked tenants who had paid the lease to vacate their houses.

However, some tenants approached the Karnataka High Court to get a stay order on eviction. On the other hand, the house owners, many of whom live abroad, were left in a lurch as they did not receive rent.

Hundreds of people filed complaints with the Bengaluru city police in September, and the case was later transferred to CID. Meanwhile, Keshavan approached the Karnataka High Court against the transfer of the case to CID.

Keshavan was previously arrested in 2019 for posing as an official from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to secure VIP temple darshan and government vehicle facilities. The Delhi High Court had fined him Rs 35,000 for impersonation.