MARGAO: A person under the garb of being an engineer at the Housing Board office of South Goa en-masse cheated people on promise of allotting flats in the Rumdamol project.
The project of Housing Board in Rumdamol Davorlim has been under construction and waiting allotment for the last two to three years. The flats are yet to be allotted to the people who have applied for it. Now, at least, 20 people have been cheated of lakhs of rupees by a person on the promise of allotting flats in the Rumdamol Housing Board project.
The aggrieved people came to meet the TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai on Thursday and narrated their case to him. One of the cheated persons said, “He informed that there are 72 residential flats and promised of allotting them to the 20 people that he took money from. All these 20 people have paid money at various intervals and have been issued receipts.”
“The contact number of the accused has been provided to the Police and have also informed that his in-laws are from Pernem,” he said.
The Managing Director of Housing Board Siddhivinayak Naik has informed that the alleged cheat is not a Housing Board staff or an engineer of the contractor, but is said to be just a helper of the contractor. Meanwhile, Naik has warned the people not to fall prey to such middlemen promising Housing Board flats as only housing board is empowered to allot the flats under the stipulated procedures.
Meanwhile, sources suggest that the entire plan may have been hatched nearly two and a half years ago and there are chances that more have been cheated by the accused and out of shame they have not come out.
It is also revealed that none of the people who paid money to the cheat, even after being so close to the Housing Board office, inquired at the office before paying large sums of money to an unknown person. It is also known that the receipts that were given by the accused don’t even look like an official document.
However, no police complaint has been filed so far.
