BENGALURU: A cheating complaint has been filed by Hosadurga MLA Goolihatti D. Shekhar against three people who had duped him to the tune of Rs 1 crore by promising to sell 10 acres of land to him on the city outskirts. According to the police, the incident took place last month. A complaint was lodged in Annapoorneshawari Nagar police station after repeated attempts to get back his money yielded no result. The MLA approached the police last Friday and filed a plaint against Narayana Reddy K.M., his wife Bhagya and her mother Padmavathy.
The police said that in his complaint Shekhar had stated that he was running a granite business and wanted to set up a stock yard on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
In the first week of June, a person identifying himself as Narayana Reddy approached him stating that he wanted to sell 10 acres of land, which is in the wife’s name, at Kudlu village in Anekal. After several rounds of negotiations the price was fixed for Rs 1 crore and Shekhar transfered Rs 50 lakh through RTGS and paid Rs 50 lakh in cash to Reddy.
Reddy gave the memorandum of understanding (MoU) duly signed by his wife Bhagya and her mother Padmavathy and even got the general power of attorney (GPA) issued. The cheating came to light when Shekhar visited the land he had purchased recently to plan for construction of stock yard. To his shock the neighboring landlords informed him that the land belonged to the government. Shekhar crosschecked the papers with the authorities concerned and realized that both MoU and GPA were fake.
When the MLA contacted Reddy, he admitted that he had cheated him, but assured to return the money after selling a piece of land at Doddakallasandra. "When Shekhar demanded that he should return the money, Reddy refused and challenged me to do whatever I can," Shekhar said in his complaint. The police are now on the lookout for Reddy and his family members, who are on the run.
