Hyderabad: A 29-year-old housewife, who claimed to be a senior officer in the endowment department and cheated people offering them double bed room flats from the government and jobs in the police and her three associates were arrested by the police.
The woman, Mahbuni, belonging to Prakasam district, lured victims through her agents and collected Rs 30,000 from each. She paid Rs 5,000 to the agents for each customer. The gang cheated around 100 people and collected Rs 34 lakh.
Police said that B. Mahbuni, 29, was a school dropout and had got married early but got divorced. Four years ago she came to Hyderabad and married an autorickshaw driver and has two daughters.
She hatched a plan to cheat and chose the 2BHK scheme for that. She and her agents M. Satish Kumar, 35, a driver, M. Amaravathi, 32, a private employee and Mohammed Tajuddin, 32, an electrician, started approaching people.
“She introduced herself as an officer of the endowment department having good contacts with high officials. She claimed that she can get two bedroom flats and jobs in the government and demanded Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 from each victim,” DCP B. Limba Reddy said.
Her agents also duped people promising houses in Bhoiguda and at the project in Jeedimetla. They collected money and photocopies of Aadhaar cards, ration cards, photos and asked them to deposit the amount in their bank accounts. After collecting the money, she used to pay Rs 5,000 to the agent for each applicant. Since February 2016, she cheated 110 people and collected Rs 34 lakh.”
“Using this, she purchased a plot for Rs 3.4 lakh at Prakasam, cleared the loan of her husband’s autorickshaw, purchased three more autorickshaws and a bike,” DCP Limba Reddy added.
Whenever the victims approached her for flats she used to say that the allotment orders were pending for signatures at the commissioner's office and will be released any time.
The arrested persons and the seized Rs 10.4 lakh, four autorickshaws and other documents were handed over to Chilkalguda police station.
