This Article is From Mar 01, 2012

Look-out notice against businessman in Rs 300 crore fraud

Hyderabad: Police issued look-out notices against a city-based businessman, who along with eight others allegedly duped reality firm DLF Universal Limited to the tune of Rs 300 crore.

The Central Crime Station (CCS) -- a wing of Hyderabad police issued the notices against Gowri Shankar Gupta, who is absconding since the past two days after two cases for offences of cheating and under other relevant sections of IPC were registered against him and the directors of group companies owned by Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) J Satyanarayana told

Gupta, who is into real estate, along with the other eight allegedly induced DLF Universal Limited to advance/ invest huge sums to the tune of around Rs 300 crore for various projects to be undertaken as joint ventures in Hyderabad and defrauded the company by not returning its money, the DCP explained.

DLF, in its complaint with the police, has alleged that the accused committed a huge fraud of around Rs 300 crore and it took nearly four years for DLF to perceive the deceit, cheating and breach of trust by which the accused persons misappropriated causing huge loss to DLF.

"The modus operandi of Gupta and others was that they entered into MoUs with DLF over various real estate projects since 2006 against payment of advances, which they misrepresented and deceitfully took away huge amounts of DLF," CCS officials said.

The accused neither formed any Special Purpose Vehicle nor transferred land by way of lease as promised after collecting the amount from DLF as part of the joint venture and also did not refund the money despite continuous reminders, they said, adding that trail of money also needs to be investigated.

The look-out notices were sent to international airports across the country to prevent Gupta from fleeing India, they said. Meanwhile, the nine accused have filed anticipatory bail pleas at a local court and the matter has been posted for March 3.
.