The accused had collected amount from a Bengaluru resident towards brokering MUDA sites    

Mysore/Mysuru: A case has been booked against an advocate and her husband at Vidyaranyapuram Police station on the charges of cheating an elderly person of Rs. 12.24 lakh in the name of facilitating Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) sites.

Advocate Anitha and her husband Devendra are the couple who have been booked on the basis of a complaint by M. Nagaraju of Bengaluru. The Police have framed various charges under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and 468 r/w 34 (fraudulent/ dishonest motive), against the accused persons.

Nagaraju, a retired MICO employee in Bengaluru is a resident of Kengeri in the same city. He is a native of Dodda Kavalande, Nanjangud taluk, Mysuru district. His son Anil Kumar has married Girijamba of Mysuru. Girijamba knew Anitha, though an advocate by profession, who was running a garment and bangle store in the name of Koustubha Enterprises near Vishweshwaranagar bus stop here.

Anitha had allegedly offered to broker MUDA sites to Girijamba and her family members under Scheduled Caste (SC) quota. Following this, Girijamba’s father-in-law Nagaraju met Anitha in her shop, where the latter offered to broker a site each for the former under senior citizen quota and under SC women’s quota for his wife Mallamma, daughter Suneetha, daughter-in-law Girijamba and her relative Roopa.

On Dec. 26, 2018, Anitha collected Rs. 5 lakh towards five sites and issued a receipt, believed to be that of MUDA for Rs. 3.87 lakh. She also collected Rs. 1.5 lakh from Suneetha. Totally, Anitha had allegedly collected Rs. 12.24 lakh from Nagaraju’s family alone. 

On Aug. 19, 2019, Anitha and her husband Devendra took Nagaraju’s family members to Vijayanagar and showed them a few sites and promised to get the Khata done after allotment by MUDA. They also gave them MUDA receipts and some documents related to the sites, according to a complaint lodged at the Police station.

Amid this, Nagaraju came across a newspaper clipping about a complaint lodged against Anitha at Lakshmipuram Police Station for cheating people in the name of brokering MUDA sites. Shocked Nagaraju approached Anitha and her husband, but the latter dismissed his apprehensions calling it as a prank by vested interests. 

Not satisfied with their reply, Nagaraju went to MUDA and cross verified the receipts and documents given by the accused, only to learn that they were fake. He later demanded his money back from the accused, who promised to pay back and issued two cheques along with two letters of undertaking drafted by notary.

The cheques got bounced and the accused couple went underground after winding up their business and also renting their own house to a tenant and blocking the phone numbers of Nagaraju and their family members.

Following this, Nagaraju lodged a complaint against Anitha and her husband on Dec. 27 at Vidyaranyapuram Police Station.