IT executive, friends cheated of Rs 24 crore with promise of land near Noida’s Jewar Airport

Complainant Gaurav Sharma, an IT professional and a resident of Sector-50, said that he and his friends have been cheated over the sale of about 175 bighas of land in Mehandipur Bangar village of Rabupura. The friends wanted to set up an agro-farming base on the piece of land.

The land, which never existed, has a fake registry, complained Sharma, who along with his three friends — Gopesh Rohatgi, Shilpi Agarwal and Yatish Agarwal — met the two accused, Sachin Bhati and Ravindra Sharma, in the beginning of 2022.

“Both the accused had introduced themselves as big landowners of Jewar and members of a political family…They assured to provide us 100 to 200 bighas of agricultural land,” said Sharma in his complaint.

The complaint stated, “We were given revenue documents, but when we sought a copy of the transfer documents of the purchased land in the revenue records, they made excuses. When we investigated, it turned out that the documents were fake and the purchased land did not exist. The bank accounts, in which we had transferred money, were opened on the basis of forged documents. Cheques taken from us were deposited into these accounts and cash was withdrawn.”

The victims further alleged that when they demanded their money back,the accused threatened them. “We have been requesting them for the last 6 months to return our money…We invested about Rs 24 crore of hard-earned money and got nothing in return except fake documents,” said Sharma.

An FIR has been lodged under IPC sections 420 (Cheating), 467, 468, 471— all three related to forgery, 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy), and 506 (Criminal Intimidation) in sector-63 police station on the directions of the commissioner of police, Laxmi Singh.

SHO Awadhesh Pratap Singh of Sector-63 said they are collecting evidence. According to the FIR, the accused, apart from Bhati and Ravindra, have been identified as Dheeraj Sharma, Sonu Sharma, Rishipal, Aas Mohammad, Atha Mohammad, Akil, Sakir, Vineet Kumar Gupta, Mudassir, Sakir, Irshad, Salauddin, Tariqat Khan, Narendra and others.