Mumbai, Mar 16: Two brothers were booked for duping five employees of the Department of Atomic Energy (DoAE)to the tune of Rs 1.22 crore, police said today.
The accused, who are sons of a former BARC employee, identified as Vivek Rohil (35), who posed himself as area manager of ICICI bank's Chembur branch, and his brother Vinod (33), were booked by Trombay police for cheating five employees of Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCL) Limited and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), under pretext of buying them flats at cheaper rates, senior Inspector Sanjay Khire said.
The accused duo are the residents of Navi Mumbai and their father Nathuran retired as a Scientific officer from BARC a few years ago, he said.
Since last September, the accused allegedly took Rs 49 lakh from the NPCL Additional Chief Engineer Anil Pradhan, Rs 10 lakh from Chief Engineer G Badrinarayan, Rs 28 lakh from BARC's Scientific officer Nutan Mithaliyan, Rs 20 lakh from BARC employee Nagraj Aadanki and Rs 15 lakh from Vinay Verma, whose wife is employed as a scientific officer with BARC, police said.
Vivek "lured" the victims saying that the builder of a plush multi-storey 'Kukreja Residency' at Deonar is selling flats at cheaper rates as he could not return the loan he had taken from the ICICI Bank, Khire said.
However, Vivek neither gave them possession of the promised flats nor did he return money following which the NPCL Additional Chief Engineer Anil Pradhan lodged an FIR against the brother duo with Trombay police.
As his father used to work with the BARC, the accused Vivek knew the victims and convinced them that the flats would be made available to them at cheaper rates. The victims who stay in the BARC colony believed him as Vivek introduced himself as ICICI area manager, Khire said.
After taking money from the victims, Vivek also promised them of getting registration for the flats done shortly, they said.
"However, as and when the victims asked him for registration, he started avoiding them," Khire said. The victims then enquired about Vivek in Chembur branch of the ICICI last month only to find that he was never associated with the bank.
Vivek's brother Vinod assisted him in the crime following which the FIR was registered against the siblings, Khire added.
"We are gathering evidence against the two. So far, nobody has been arrested. Further investigation is on", police said. PTI
