Swadhathri's realtor booked for cheating depositors

Hyderabad: Cyberabad Police booked a realtor for cheating hundreds of property buyers to the tune of Rs 400 Crore, under the garb of fraudulent schemes. The Madhapur police falling under Cyberabad commissionerate registered a case against Raghu Yarlagadda & others under protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act.

According to the police, realtor Raghu Yarlagadda established companies by the name Swadhathri Infra Pvt. Ltd, Swadhathri Infra Projects and Swadhathri Realtors. The accused deployed 30 agents and 20 tele callers for collection of deposits from the people and had launched 3 schemes to lure the public.

The modus operandi was, The 1st Scheme, was termed 'Finance with High Returns' where depositors were attracted with high returns. For example, customers who invest Rs.1 lakh and more, the company would offer 9% returns per month for a period of one year. The accused offered to pay back the principle amount within a year including the interest.

Accordingly, Raghu Yarlagadda with the help of the Gogulapati Srinivasa Babu and manager Meenakshi and others reportedly collected deposits of Rs. 87 Cores from about 950 customers.

In the second, the accused introduced a buy back scheme on open plots. The company made agreements and bought the plots in bulk at lower cost with real estate venture owners. Then the company offered a scheme, where in the customer had to pay full amount and after the registration at once, the company would pay returns at a rate of 4% to 10 % per Month for one year. After the completion of one year, the Company would buy back the plot if the customers want to sell it.

Accordingly with this scheme they had collected deposits of Rs.42 Crores from about 300 customers with the help of agents.

While, in the 3rd Scheme termed Real estate residential flats, Raghu Yarlagadda made agreements with the builders by paying 40% amounts and block the flats. He lured the people by offering free registration and also without GST, if the purchaser pays 70% of total cost of the flat at a time. If any customer paid 50% to 60% of the total cost of the flat at once then he offered them that he will be paying Rs. 10,000/- Per Month until the customer take the position of the flat.

Accordingly in the scheme they had collected deposits of Rs.27 Crores from about 200 customers with the help of agents.

" Yarlagadda Raghu Babu, a former employee of IBM was the master mind. The accused worked as a real-estate agent in Vijaywada . The man is a habitual offender as several cases were registered against him in Vijayawada. The latter, moved to Hyderabad and launched a chain of companies" Commissioner of Police V C Sajjanar said.

The lid blew off when Madhapur police received complaints from depositors. Following an investigation, the police registered a case under section 420, 406 & 506 of Indian Penal Code.