Mumbai: Fearing a fate similar to businessman Mansukh Hiren who was killed in the case related to Antilia bomb threat, people allegedly duped by Purushottam Chavan, the accused in the Rs 263 crore TDS refund scam, are afraid to file a complaint. The ‘Hiren-like’ murder fear was shared by victims deceived collectively of Rs 15 crore by Chavan, a senior IPS officer’s husband, under the pretence of securing government quota flats. This threat was cited as one of the main reasons why victims did not report the crime to the Mumbai police. Chavan is currently in judicial custody.
One of the victims, who is 72 years old, lost more than Rs 3 crore. He alleged that months before his arrest, Chavan had indirectly threatened nearly 20 victims by referring to the Hiren murder case, lest anyone attempted to file complaints to the police.
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The senior victim revealed that despite many sleepless, fearful nights, he mustered the courage to report the matter to the state government. On July 12, he emailed Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, detailing the fraud and raised serious concerns about the potential misuse of power to settle the matter by Chavan’s wife, an IPS officer. The office of Fadnavis responded on Monday, informing the senior victim that his case had been referred to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department for investigation. The FPJ has a copy of the email.
Recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case at the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai. The chargesheet reveals that Chavan colluded with the other accused and laundered Rs 11 crore both in India and abroad.
According to ED, the fraud is also linked to the allocation of government quota flats, counterfeiting government property documents, and fabricating government documents to commit fraudulent activities. These are crimes under different sections of law. Therefore, the agency will formally request the Mumbai crime branch to register a case against Chavan and conduct a probe.
According to the elderly victim, Chavan assured several people of his close contacts in the state government and that he had secured flats in various locations at a fraction of price under different government quotas. He collected nearly Rs 15 crore from people between 2015 and 2019.
The elderly victim stated that Chavan promised luxurious government quota flats to him, his son, daughter, and son-in-law, other relatives and friends. In 2015, Chavan secured two 4BHK flats, each measuring 2,200 sq ft, for Rs 55 lakh near Viviana Mall in Thane, under the pretence of government quota flats, for the victim’s son and daughter. Similarly, for the victim’s son-in-law, who lives in West Indies, Chavan prepared fake documents and extracted Rs 1 crore for an extravagant flat at 25th South in Prabhadevi, claiming government quota.
Chavan not only showed sample flats to the victims but also created dozens of fake documents and prepared paperwork to allot flats under government quota. He even enlisted the help of officials at the sub-registrar’s office to legally register these fake documents through the biometric system. He collected payments from everyone through cheques in his name for the flats, but did not provide copies of any of the registered documents, continually assuring them that the documents were being sent for approval to the home ministry and would be provided during possession between 2019 and 2021. Currently, the investigation is ongoing to determine how these flats were registered based on fraudulent documents.
According to the victims, from 2019 to 2024, Chavan kept deceiving them by claiming that work was stalled due to RERA regulations, changes in the government, and the pandemic. Eventually, when people realised they had been cheated, they asked for a refund. However, Chavan continued to mislead them by referring to his clout and threatening them with loss of their money if the case became public.
During the ED search at the official residence of the IPS officer, Rashmi Karandikar, with whom Chavan lived in Colaba, several allegedly counterfeit government quota property documents were recovered. Chavan had prepared counterfeit documents worth Rs 150 crore for 14 properties in Mumbai and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for land parcels in Mumbai and Pune. He also forged the signature of a Deputy Secretary of the Maharashtra government to authenticate these counterfeit documents.
